The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1858-08-27
Horace greeley on the stump.


convention of the people OF Ulster county
New York:
He said we should never have harmony IN.
ill we arrived at perfect understanding OF
| fundamental principles, and when we ar
rived ut that we should be once more uni
ted, tranquil and conferred people. The old
policy ON which our fathers fought the bat
ties of the revolution and settled the Federal
Constitution was the only policy under which
this nation ever could be tranquil. That
policy, as declared by Washington, Jefferson,
and the men of their age, was the recogni-
tion of slavery as n local evil with which the
people only Of the localities could deal.
and that being local evil, it must not be a.
lowed to interfere and disturb general con-
Germs, and was not fairly subject to the sa-
pervision or action Of other sections. Loud
ppplause.] That policy and those principles
would give this country peace again. That
policy and those principles would mako har-
mony between the North and South, and
none other could. MIR. Greeley, after ira
cling the origin of the present difficulties
about the question Of slavery in the Terrific
ries, from the ordinance of 1857 to the adj
mission of Missouri, thus proceeded In
1890, New York, by her Legislature and ma
ny Of her representatives in Congress, OBJ
jected to the admission Of Missouri as slave
State. Now, although his own Judgment
would concur in the policy and principle in
dicated by this resistance, yet he apprehend-
ed that, practically, the resistance was made
at the wrong point. Whatever might be said
OF the policy OF excluding slave State, he
thought that they would never be able to ex-
clude slave State on the ground Of it's be-
| ing a slave State. When q community is
! formed, and with slavery, and says, We pro.
| pose to come into the Union as State, they
would not be able to 20 behind her own ac-
ton, or interfere with her sovereignty, so
far as to prevent her coming into the Union
with slavery, so as she was republican in
form. Experience had settled this, that the
only point Of effective resistance was as to
the establishment Of slavery in the Territory
itself. He stated this, not as his opinion,
but as deduction from history. For in
stance, suppose Cuba should come into the
/ Union, (and he did not desire that she should,
he desired that she should not) and had
formed State Government, they never would
be able to keep her out because she was
slave State.
Another point. lie thought that expert
ence had settled the matter, whatever we
might say of popular sovereignty or Of the
rights os the people, that the principle OBJ
liquely laid down in the Cincinnati platform,
and more deliberately expressed in the Pres
idenps Message, that the appropriate time
for State to decide for herself when she
will have or when She will not have slavery,
10 when she comes to ask admission into the
Union, was practically settled. He did no.
say he would not like to have it otherwise,
but j. was so very difficult to determine when
Territories should decide this question for
themselves, that he saw no other course Of
action than TO say that when they come to
frame State government, they shall decide
for themselves whether they will have slave
State or a free State. Then the question
would arise, what shall be the law of the Ter
ritory prior to the time when she shall come
into the Union as State. The law would
be decided, US it had already been decided,
BY the Congress and by the Judiciary of the
United States. lie apprchended there was
no other proper law but liberty, no other
proper basis but equality, no other foundn-
ton and guarantee for rights but equal and
universal right. Universal right and uni
versal dignity make every man the equal, be-
fore the law, of every other man. They
might say to him, Why cannot these people
settle this question for themselves? Well,
he would say, what shall be the law until thev
do settle it for themselves? lie stood on
Mr.. Clay's principle, enunciased in his reso-
luton of 1850, that slavery has no existence
in the absence Of positive law. Applause.
He did not think they need discuss the ques-
ton whether Congress had right to abolish
slavery in the Territories; first came the
question whether my one has the right to es-
tablish it there. lie said no one had until
the people como to frame their State const-
tuition, and not till then.
Distinguished members of the American
party also made speeches on the occasion,
from which We make the following brief ex-
tracts:
| Mr.. Hendley expressed at length his views
on the Slavery question. He had always
been an Anti. Slavery man himself, and be-
lleved that the Americans generally were Of
the same way of thinking. He believed that
the great gun Of freedom in this country
was in the Slave States themselves. The
| North had never gained the 6rst thing by her
talk about the Slave Territory. He never
knew a single State where Slavery was abol-
shed upon moral grounds. II was the poll
cy Of the present Administration TO keep the
Slavery agitation open, so as to unite the
whole South. Now, it should be the policy
OF the Opposition to suppress that agitation,
and be felt confident that If New York set
the example Of an anti-D emocratic victory,
Tennessee, Kentucky and Louisiana would
follow, and in the next Presidential contest,
the Democratic party would be prostrated
beyond hope Of resurrection. There was
not an American or Republican in the State
who did not believe that the Democratic
party was injuring our republican institu-
tons and disgracing our country at home
and abroad. Let US, then, no said, unite
and attack this evil and remove it, and while
SO engaged, we may come to think that we
are not so much apart in regard to other
evils as we thought we were. loud cheers. |
Hon. I. Il. Westbrook, cx-member Of
Congress, in compliance with loud calls,
rose and said, he did not rise to make q
formal speech, but to give his entire, hearty
and emphatic assent to every one Of the res :
olutions offered. Loud cheers When in
Congress, he voted for the Kansas Neb raska
bill on the ground that it affirmed the prin-
ciple Of Popular Sovereignty; but had he
ever supposed that the Interpretation subse-
quently put upon it by Mr.. Buchanan would
be enforced, he would have opposed that bill
to the utmost of his power. So in regard to
the English bill. lie did not believe in 1t
because it did not put the question fairly be-