The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-04-15

State, were not second In their hostility TO this
scheme for the extension of the slave systen,
even though bunker portion of their Repre-
sentatives upon this floor betrayed their princi-
Piles. When Slavery rested temporarily from
sits goings to and fro in the country, seeking
an avenue for extension, and assailed the ga
cred right of petition in these Halls, from 1885
to 1888, my constituents we're no Indifferent
spectators of that great struggle. And when
the same power, under the gag resolutions,
brought the venerable sage of Quincy to
the bar of this House for the presentation OF a
petition, the Numbering spirit of even our staid
conservatives was aroused. rs
Ia 1914 you opened up the propaganda
scheme afresh, and expended millions of the
money of the people to take " The Lone Star
Republic into the bosom of the Confederacy
providing that from this prolific political womb
should be born, at times suitable for the future
emergencies which might arise in the Slavery
extending scheme, four slaveholdipg sovereign
ties. Did Connecticut tamely and silently &C.
quiesce in this Wholesale barter of those princi-
Piles enunciated by Roger Sherman and bis
compeers of the Constitutional Convention 2
She has history upon that transaction, and it
is written. go
In 1850 you enacted a handwriting, heaven
defying law, which abrogated the Divine pre-
cept, ito feed the hungry, clothe the naked,
and shelter the oppressed !" turned every acre
of our land into Federal hunting ground for
men; made our citizens bloodhounds by law
to reclaim captives, under the pains and penal
tiles of q forfeiture of our hard.earned property
and Imprisonment in felon's cell. Did we
bow and cringe and swear allegiance in the loss
of our principles and manhood? Sir, you can
not get corporsPs guard in the whole State
AZ IL, &c fbof Al
Democratic conservative portion of our citizens
who swear by James Buchanan and the Le-
compton Constitution, the Federal patronage
of course included. You but stirred up our
yeomanry to the contemplation of how they
could best preserve their sovereignty as State,
and their rights as individuals, against the ag.
gressions of that Slavery propegaOdism which
then, as it has since, held complete control
over the general Administration. The action
of the two great national Conventions, ignoring
all discussion of question which involved our
dearest rights, and promising, by all the force
of party machinery, "to crush out" discussion,
buried in sepulchre too deep for the ghost of
a chance of resurrection, the old Wing party in
the State, and passed the Democratic party, its
opponent, through the damp vaults leading to
its final sepulchre-hanging dark and murky
pail over its prospects of ever becoming a VIC
torious political organization there, unless by q
division Of the Anti-Slavery forces upon local
questions. The repeal of the Missouri restric.
tion--the prolific dam of this whole brood of
vilainies against the people of Kansas, from
Atchison's invasion to the contamination of the
scheme in the presentation of the Pro.Slavery
Lecompton instrument, has decimated the
already broken ranks of the Administration
party in the State. The bred cott decision
of the Supreme Judicial bench of the country
has shown them that even the sanctity of our
highest judicial seats has been invaded by this
rabid spirit of Slavery extension, and that the
robe of the Judge is no proof against the parti
san madness Of the day.
Sir, the people of Connecticut are not slaves,
nor the sons of slaves. They are not vassals
of the South, nor the children of vasssis. They
are, as body, legitimate in descent from the
Pilgrims of Plymouth, and glory in their Puri
tanic character and ancestry. Their early laws
recognised, and were based upon, those Divine
precepts which thsy believed and practiced.
Their code of statutory obligations, from the
founding of their first colony down to the pres
ent time, will gather fresh lustre by a compari
son with the cotemporaneous code of any other
colony or country. She will blush for the weak
ness of a son of hers who, in the presence of
the nations Representatives, asserts as fact what
mas no 1OunUbtlCn III HtI IcRdi utStOfyy Dut WAS
the ieer of the infdel, in consequence of her
markable feature in the speech of my colleague
from the fourth district, Mr.. Bishop, assert
ing the former existence of fabulous law, and
passing in review the statutes of our State
against the violations Of the moral law, to ex-
cite the jeers and laughter of Representatives
whom it would not injure to be brought under
their restraining influence. Sir, we have
"Sabbath law" gambling law" law
against profanity" and a Connecticut "liquor
law" with their pains and penalties. The
atmosphere of this corrupt Federal city would
be much purer, if those laws were portion of
the code of this District and had Connecticut
men to enforce them. We have also law
against bearing false Witness" or SANDER
and / much mistake the spirit of the citizens
of my colleagues district, if they do not enter
up the Judgment of an overwhelming majority
against him in the election which is to come.
Sir, a majority of the citizens of my State
occupy that happy social position which is
medium between a wealthy sristocracy on the
one hand, and a poverty which is generally
welded to ignorance, upon the other. Our
farmers cultivate their limited acres; our arti-
sans aud mechanics, by their intelligence and
skill, always find employment at remunerative
compensation, unless the fountain of labor dries
up; our merchants are second to none in the
com merce chambers of the country; and our
"schoolmasters are always abroad" There
are but few who do not acquire a suficiency of
wealth to educate their sons and daughters for
any walk of life which they select, and to grant
them sufficient assistance with which to COM
mence their career. The result is they are
virtuous; for, as a general rule, the idlers
are the vicious ones of a community. They
are intelligent, and thoroughly posted in all the
principles, history, and present operations of
our Government. They are political thinkers
from their youth. What passes in these Halls,
what is spoken in debate here, is read in their
daily papers, and commented upon at their
evening fresides. With such people for
constituency-a acknowledging the dignity and
rights of labor, scorning the coarse taunts ut
tered against them, and loathing the system
which holds a fellow-laborer in the most abiect
vassalsge, as 9 chattel, a thing, hurting back
in your teeth the prOauRciamieAto which seeks
to debase and degrade them--I do not wonder
that the small remnant of your slave-extendinQ
party in Connecticut lifts up its prayer that you
cease the utterance of such comparisons and
such ISLANDERS, for its very existence sake.
| counsel no such silence. No party good,
no party existence, shall ever humiliate me
enough to ask the South, or any section or
party, to play the hypocrite in order to sustain
my political life. If the spirit Of aristocracy is
in the South; if, in its narrow Judgment, the
great laboring class of the North is yoked with
the abject servitude of the slaves of the South,
to form "the nnud-sills" of our political ediRoe,
out with it, them with all that openness Of char.
acter with which you are accredited You will
soon fad these despised "mud-sills" of the
North rising up your peers, and towering above
you in the future history of this Government,
even now being regenerated by their awakening,
Sir, my colleague may speak for the partu,