The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1858-01-16
Speech Of I'm. 3errit Nn til. In the Cap.
itoi, at All any, April IL, 1857.

Speech Of III IN. (2errit IN tn. Ia the Cap
itoi, at Albany, April IL, 1857.
1t is not strange that men should lie
swear, steal, forge, murder. Nor i:
strange that they should do what is fal
worse than to murder; for surely to en-
slave their fellow men is far worse than
to murder them. Human nature, under
the depraved and bindiug influences,
that play upon it, is capable of whatever
crim,s
No--there is not crime, however
heinous, which it is strange that men
should commit. But what is strange is
that they, who con nit it should believe
that there can be law-valid, obligatory
law-for it. And what is mach more
strange is that they, who do not commit
it but only witness it, should be so pr.
verted and dcluded, as to believe, that
i. can be sheltered in law. and the erin
iaal protected by law. Nevertheless so
it is, that persons can b. educated to b.
lieve that the greatest crime is capable
Of being invested with the sacrcdness of
real law, and that the gr.atest criminal is
entitled to be surrounded with the pro-
lection of real law 1t is true it requires a
long education to accomplish it. Never
theless long education can accomplish
it.
Much as the idea of law for forgery,
perjury, murder, would now b, secuted
by the American people. it is however
true that they could by force of long con
,inued corrupting appeals to their inter
ests, should their interests ever happen
to lie in the direction Of these crimes,
be not only reconcilcd to their legal
cation, but fully pursualcd that tn sc
crimes are real law Just here | would
say that false ideas, social, religious, po
litical, prevailing among people, (and
among what people do they not prevail }
90 far to prepare the way for any crime,
however atrocious, to gain favor among
them, and for the greatest abonination
to be installed as law among them.
But why should be arguing to prove
that the American people might, in con,
ceivable circumstances, be led to approve
forgery, perjury, murder? The fact that
they protect, dignity, honor, and extend
slavery under the name OF law makes it
manifest that there need be no essential
change in themselves, but only in their
circumstances and interests, to bring
them to recognize forgery, perjury, muir
der, as law. For is not slavery worse
than any or all these crimes ? Would
you not rather have your name forged
every day than to be made slave for
even one day? Wonld you not rather
be falsly testified against in every court,
than to have yourself doomed to slavery
by even one court ? and, that too, for but
one hour Would you not rather see
! all your children in the grave than even
one of them in the chain Of slavery?
But thank Heaven, a people can be
changed. They can outgrow their wrong
education, and come under the reign o.
a right one Only century ago, and
well nigh all the peopl9 of England BE-
lieved that slavery is law, and that men
can be property But a chanrc clne
over them. Truth worked in them
nightly and effectually; and in the year
/ 1772. they compelled Lord Mansfield t.
say that in England slavery il not law
| that to use a poets words, slaves cannot
breathe in England" I said that his
Decision was compelled for it was the
pressure Of the public sentiment, which
alone brought him TO make it. Great
men and leaders Jagged behind the mas
ses then. lust as they do now. an as
ked every day whether | think the peo-
plc are prepared for the thorough Per
sonal Liberty Bill. Why, the people.
have for wears been inpatient to enter up
on the work of ab3lishing the whole sys-
tenn Of An,rican sltvery Their caut,
/ ious. calculating. cowardlv, leaders have
hardly been able to hold them blck. |
know not a Republican in my county,
who is not an ab,itionist.
The truth continued to work ia the
English pe,ple: and it wrought in them
further and far greater changes. Sixty
wears after Mansields Decision, and
Lrrd Brouyham but spoke out the heart
of Earland when he said There
is a law. which is shove all the enact
mant, of human codes. l. is written
by the finger of God upon the heart OF
mon. And by the law, unchangcable
and eternal, whilst men dcsplse frau |
and loathe raplne, and abhor blood
they reject with indignation the wild
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