The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1858-07-17


| Whenever you put limitation upon the
| right of any people to decide what laws
| they want, you have destroyed the funda-
mental principle Of selfgovernment.-
(Cheers)
In connection with this subject, perhaps,
it will not be improper for me on this Occa-
sion TO aUlude to the position Of those who
have chosen to arrsign my conduct on this
same subject. l have observed from the
public prints that but q few days ago the
Republican party of the State Of Illinois as
sembled in Convention at Springfield, and
not only laid down their platform, but no.
minated q candidate for the United States
Senate as my successor. Kisses l take
great pleasure in saying that have known,
personally and intimately, for about a quar-
ter of = century, the worthy gentleman who
has been nominated for my place, ca voice,
- He will never get it," and cheers,) and |
will say that | regard him as kind, amia-
BILE. and intelligent gentleman, good citizen
and an honorable opponent; and whatever
issue may have with him will be OF prin-
ciple, and not involving personalities
[Cheers.] Mr.. Lincoln made speech be.
fore that Republican Convention which
unanimously nominated him for the Senate
q speech evidently well prepared and care
fully written-in which he states the basis
upon which he proposes to carry on the
campaign during this summer. In it he
lays down two distinct propositions which |
shall notice, and upon which | shall take
direct and bold issue with him. (Cries Of
good, good, and great appIause.)
His first and main proposition | viii give
in his own language, scripture quotation and
all, Oaushter.) give his exact language
"a,
stand | believe this government canno,
endure, permanently, half stare aud half
free. ! do not expect the Union to be dis
s0lued. do not expect the house to jul;
but do expect it to cease to be divided 1t
Will become all one thing or all another"
In other words Mr.. Lincoln asserts as a
fundamental principle of this government,
that there must be uniformity IN the local
laws and domestic institutions of each and
all the States Of the Union and he there
fore invites all the non slaveholling States
to band together. organize as one body, and
make war upon slavery in Kentucky, upon
slavery in Virginia. upon slavery in the Ca
ro.inas, upon slavery IN all OF the slaveho!d-
ing States in this Union, and to Persevere in
that war until 1t shall be exterminatcd. He
then notifies the slavehoiding States TO stand
together as . unit and make an aggressive
war upon tue free States oil this Union with
Il .iew OF establishing slavery in them all:
OF forcing it upon Illinois, Of forcing 1t upon
New York, upon New England, and upon
every other free State, and that they shall
keep up the warfare until 1t has been form
ally established in them all. In other words
Mr. Lincoln advocates boldly and clearly
war OF sections, a war of tue North against
the South, of the free States against the
l.
continued releutlessly until the the
other shall De subdued and all the States
shall either become free or become slave.
Now, my friends, ! must say TO you
frankly. that take bold, unqualified issue
with him upon that principle. assert that
It is neither desirable nor possible that there
should be uniformity in tue local institutions
and domestic regulations Of the different
States of the Union. The trainers of our
government never contemplated uniformity
in its internal concerns. The fathers Of the
Revolution, and the sages who made the
Constitution well understood that the laws
and domestic institutions which would suit
the granite hills Of New Hampshire would
be totally unfit for the rice plantations of
South Carolina; Cheers they well under
stood that the laws which would suit the
agricultural districts of Pennsylvania and
New York wauld be totally unfit for the
large mining regions of the Pacific, Or the
lumber regions of Maine. lBrayo.) They
well un erstood that the great varieties Of
soil, Of production and of interests. in q re-
public as large as this, required difftren, 10
cal and domestic regulations in each locali-
ty, adapted TO the wants and interests of
each separate State, fcries of bravo" and
"good, y an for that reason it was provided
/. . -,
original States should remain sovereign and
supreme within their own limits in regard
to all that was local. and internal, and do
mes,ic, while the federal government should
have certain specified powers which were
general and national, and could be exercised
only by the federal authority. iCheers.)
The trainers of the Constitution well un-
derstood that each locality, having separate
and distinct interests, required separate and
distinct laws, domestic institutions, and po-
lice regulations adapted to its own wants
and its own condition; and they acted on
the presumption, also, tina, these laws and
institutions would be as versitied and as
dissimllar as the States would be numerous,
and that no two void be precisely alike,
because the interests of no two would be
precisely the same. Hence, l assert, that
the great fundamental principle which un-
derlies our complex system OF State and fe-
deral governments, contemplated diversity
and diSsimiarity in the local Institutions and
domestic affairs of each and every State then
in the Union, or thereafter to be admitted
into the confederacy. | therefore conceive
that my friend, Mr.. Lincoln, has totally
misa p: ehended the great principles upon
which our government Uniformity in
domestic affairs would be destructive OF
State Rights, of State Sovereignty, of Per-
sonal Liberty and Personal Freedom. Uni
formity is the parent Of Despotism the
world over, not only in politics. but in reli
gion. Wherever the doctrine Of Uniformity
is proclaimed, that all the States must be
free or all slave, that al, labor must be white
or all black, that all the citizens of the diff
ferent States must have the same privileges
or be governed by the same regulations, you
have destroyed the greatest safeguard which
our institutions have thrown around the
rights of the citizen. e. Bravo" and great
arplause.)
How could this uniformity be accomplish
ed if it was desirable and possibley There
is but one mode in which it could be obtain.
ed. and that must be by abolishng the State
Legislatures, blotting out State sovereignty,
merging the rights and sovereignty of the
States in one consolidated empire, and vest
ing Congress with the plensry power to
make all the police regulations. domestic and
local laws, uniform throughout the limits of
the Republic. When you shall have done
this you will have uniformity. Then the
States will all be slave or all be free; then
negroes will vote everywhere or nowhere;
then you will have Maine liquor law in
every State or none; then you will have
uniformity in all things. local or domestic,
by the authority of the federal government.
Bat, when you attain that uniformity you
will have converted these these thirty-two
sovereign, independent States into one con
solidated empire, with the uniformity Of dis
position reigning triumphant throughout the
isnafh and breadth of the land l"Hear,"