Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1858-03-04
THE GREIT STRUGGLE.
There is no Property i'm Man!
tf SPEECH OF
HON. OWEN LOVEJOY,
OF ILLINOIS, i.ft|....f.
Deliveref an TIE House of Representatives.
Wednesday, February IL, 1888.

MIR. LovEJoY delivered strong, boil,
and eloquent speech on the Rights of Man,
in Congress, on the 18th nit. He began
by saying there VAS no conflict between the
North and South-a sectional strife be-
tween two parties of the country-tla;
there was no envy between the producers
of maize, wheat and sorghum, in the North,
and the growers of rice, cotton and cane in
the South. The conflict was not between
sections, but between Freedom and Slavery
between the principles of Liberty and
those of Despotism. After an eloquent
elaboration Of this i,lea he passed on to say:
And this brings me. sir, to the question:
| desire to discuss--the question not only
ofthe day. but of the aSc-the most import
ant question that has agitated the country
since the Revolution, and the most solemn
and grave one with which Christian civili-
zation has had to grapple in modern times.
The President. in his message, claims,
or rather assumes, that human beings are
property in the absolute and unqualified
sense-property as the grazing OK or bale
of merchandise is property; and that the
tenure of this property is natural and
indcfcas;blc right guaranteed by the con-
stitution. And it has been avcrrcd on thc
floor of this House that. as an abstract;
principle, the system of American Slavery
was right. having the sanction of natural
anil of revealed religion As the whole of
this discussion, in its real merits, hinges
ON this principle or dogma. confront it
at the very threshold, AMI deny it. i af
firm that it has not the sanction of natural
or revealed religion, or of the Constitution
l nccl not say that this is a new doe
| trinc, unknown TO the fathers and founders
of the Republic Indeed, till within very
few years, slavery was acknowledged by
all classes, in the slave no less than in the
free States, to be an evil, social, moral AMI
/ political, wrong to the slave, detriment
| to the master, and blight on the soil; It's
very existence deplorcd. and its ultimate
determination looked forward to with ear
nest and often inpatient hope. 1t was re-
! gar,led as the relic of barbarous age,
which must disappear before the Advancing
civilization of the present. 1t WAS deemed
to be contrary to the benign spirit and pre-
cepts of the Christian religion, which
would ere long supplant it. Many of its
ablest and trnest opponents were reared in
the midst Of 1t. and could be called neither
! Intermediates nor fanatics. No one pre-
ten led that it hal any right whatever be-
yond the limits OF the local laws which Gre
ated and protected it 'lHi1
But all this is changednow The demon
Of slavery has come forth from the tombs
1t has grown bold and defiant and impu-
dent 1t has left its lair, lifted its shame
less front toward the skies, and with horrid
contortions and gyrations, mouths the
heavens, and muttcrs it's blasphemies about
having the sanction of holy and Just God;
,lo,lges behind the national compact. and
grins and chatters out its senile peurilities
about constitutional sanction; and then,
like fantastic ape, jumps upon tina bench,
puts on erlnine and wig, and pronounces
the dictum that a certain class of human
beings have no rights which another certain
class are bound to regard; and then it claims
the right tostalk abroad through the length
and breadth Of the land, robbing the poor
! free laborer Of his heritage, trampling on
congressional prohibitions, crushing out
beneath its tread State sovereignty AID
State constitutions. 1t claims the right to
pollutc the Territories with its slnny foot
steps, and then makes its way to the very
home of freedom in the free States, carried
there on unconstitutional palanquin, man.
ufaetured and borne aloft on the one side
by Democratic Executive, and on the 9TH
or by Democratic Jesuit Judgei 1t
claims the right to annihilate free schools
for this its very pressure achieves--to
hamper free press, to ,lefile the pulpit, to
corrupt religion, and to stihe free thought
and free speech! 1t claims the right to
convert the fruitful field into a wilderness.
sothat forests shall grow mp around grave
yards and the populous village become a
habitation for OWLS 1t claims the right 20
transform the free laborcr, by process of
impereeptible degradation, to a condition
only not worse than that of the slave
Yes, sir, while the border ruffians arc stri-
wing, by alternate violence and fraud. TO
force slavery into Kansas, the President
and Chief Justice, by new. unheartl Of. and
most unwarrantable interpretations of the
Constitution, are endeavoring to enthronc
and nationalize slavery, and make it the
dominant power in the land, and are CALI
ing upon the people. inthe name of Denloc-
racy, to crowd up TO the temple gates of
J this demon worship! And ali this upon
the false, atrocious and impious avermeut,
that human beings are property! Again |
meet this doctrine and spurn it, The Su.
4 preme Being never intended that human
beings should'be property. eaisus5g ma.
! In those far-oIf solitu,les of the past.
when that sublime manifestation of AL
mighty power was to be made in tlie for
nation of human being, what wastlscut-
tcrsnee that fell from the Divine lips?-
"And God said let MS make man in our
! own image. after our likeness; and in tho
! image of Col crcatcl. he him.'' Mulc bat
little lower than the angels, crowned with
glory and honor, there stood man, the del
essted lord and sposscssor. Of this earth; and
| Of all the irrational existence with which
it feemed. This similitule of maa to God
! is . reality. There is, in mans spiritual
/; nature, a miniature God-debased this
, likeness may be- dis6gured and diIn,. SELL
there is the Divine tfacery. Ths pearl nj ~