Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-06-26
SPEECH OF
HON. PHILEMON BLISS,
or ONO,
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,,
MAY 2lth.lS5e.
or MO,

V ~ INN hOCob Of hhlNhSEN AllNES,
MAY Attn. 1853.
! The House being in Committee Of the Whole
on the state Of The Union
! Mir Bliss said
| Mr. Chairman During the crowded Lecomp.
ton be6atc, refrained from seeking the floor,
chiefly because | desired to see the new opponents
OF the K0usas outrages and especially my col
leagues, learn to stand, and, ii possible, To walk
alone and also because the subject Itself was
one could with great difficulty coUllv consider
could reason with highwayman, it | had 10
more elective weapon; might also demonstrate
win pckpocket; but | could find no fit words
Tor discussing in republican representative body
the propriety of forcing a dark despotism upon
protesting people, upon one of our young States
especially as this was to be done in the name of
Democracy and of popular sovereignty" If the
statement Of the proposition would not carry its
own damnation, no parliamentary language of mine
could htly describe it and the mind that could
Tor moment entertain it, is entirely beyond my
reach.
J And when the Administration and its masters
toiled in the naked wickedncas, incubated with
those whose plighteG faith if not their princ
pies, should have been their guard, and hatched
the nasty substiute-a substitute establishing the
principle Of non.submission, while claiming to
provide for its effect, though coupled with cond
! TONS lraud.inviting, and deeply insulting to Kan
sas, TO Freedom, and the Nurth-I watched the
newborn men, to see whether soul had been ac.
tually given them. More in pity than in anger,
saw them fall before they had well learned to
stand; saw them, with mouths full Of valiant words
swallow naked and degrading insults saw them
yield to a dominating absolutism, though not u
complete, yet real, and TO US and them degrading
victory.
By lawess enforcement of lawless dicta Sla
very exists in all the Territories and we have
now the precedent that such Territory may at any
time become slave State but, il it cannot be
forced Or 6ribed to receive slave Constitution, it
must continue slave Territory; must wait for
the lest ot and Of preliminary requirement.
had faithfully hoped TO have been spared this
cup OF degradation but why should |? Ever
since the slave interest has succeeded in over rid
ing every other interest ever since the enemies
OF free labor, the contemuers of free speech the
assassns of free thought have established the
reigh of terror in nearly half these States have
seen but single purpose, zone idea" an absorb.
ing object prompting and guiding their every
scheme.
GIllemen seem asonished at the bald wicked
nee5A striving to force upon an unwilling, n pro
testing people, a despotic fundamental law, and
rsnt to receive what could not thus be force
Diet, where the end is the supremacy OF
force, where that end has been for years the
steGly, unrentted object, with no variableness
an~Y Yearce shadow OF turning. how can we won.
der? Shall the means be more holy than the end?
The Lecompton scheme Of fraud and usurption
the preparatory oatrages-he fOrays, The robber
les, the burnings, the impriSonmeEts, the murders
all perpetratod by, or under the eye of, Federal
officials all sustained directly indirectly, by
Federal bayone.s, and the disgrace!ul fnale may
well astonish and alarm! Yet, they are but acts
in the one grand drama
The success of these champions Of force is no
in, Iuto OF
this Union, and that section, from the lighting
influence Of their rule, comparatively weak and
poverty stricken, men wonder to see them able to
control the federation and realize every sectional
scheme able to give construction to the funda
mental law one way, against the wants of com
merce, Of creative art, and the necessities of per
sOual protection. and another way in favor of des
potic interests to see them make solemn contracts
to subserve such interests, and break them for the
same end to see them able to scctionaze and
pack the Supreme Judiciary to strike down the
haCeas corpus and trial by jury to involve US in
war upon the weak, to rob territory for Slavery,
while yielding to the strong that which was free.
and to which "our title was clear and unquestion'
able )" to them able to prescribe all highmind-
ed men, driving FROM tho public service those of
all sections who believe in the harmony Of the
Decalogue, the Declaration, and the Constitution
making tests that would have excluded Frank
lin and Jefferson and Jay from the pettiest Office
to see them make cringing slaves of Northern
boasters, d0oninG to the curse Of the serpent,
upon thy belly shalt thou crawl" every applicant
for Federal favor; to see them cause in this Hall
parliamentary law respected upon other ques-
tloss, to be so often overrhrown upon questions Of
Slavery, and make the courts of the federation
eager aud bloodthirsty after a fugitive from servi
tude, powerless against the piratica apostles of
foreign propaSandlsm, Men, too, wOnder-ay,
they sore ama2ed-to see the apostles of force
able to place this Government in league with CON
spirators against one of its Territories sustaining
them in ballotstuffings, forgeres and every polit
zeal crime known among men, to cause it TO employ
all Its powers to fasten up this Territory form OF
State Government it loathes and deteSts giving as
the chief reason for the damning crime, the fact
that 1t does thus detest it Ay, and their wonder
grows to astonishnent rs they behold Representa-
tives of spasmodic virtue glad to be permitted to
aid to the fell end by brbes by threats and by in
vited frauds
Whence this omnipotence for evil Yet we
should not wonder. These are the necessary re-
suits OF the different spirit and resolution, the
different manner and purpose, that have hitherto
distinguished the controversies between the friends
and opponents, if opponents they may be called,
of human enslavement The friends of absolu-
tism have been all WILL all energy, all persever.
ance In their work while their opponents have
met them by temporizing, now expostulating, now
family resisting and finally always yielding
The former have seized good idea ms the basis
OF their civilization and steadily keeping it in
view, have subordnaed every otLer considers alton.
The latter, intent upon gain, and peace in its pur-
suit, have ignored all fixed principle, been blind
to any great end, and have substituted a shutting
expedency for an enduring purpose. The I will
OF the one is met by the please don't" of the
other; and "l'm afraid can't" is the bravest re.
sponse to the grim ''you shall )" and while the
former have kept their representative men in the
middle ot the conflict, the latter have sought to
send into retirement all whose earnesness of re-
slsIance has seemed to make reality Of the sham
Even the brave champions Of ''the equality of the
States" and 1.-The sovereignty of the people,"
The Representatives from Cincinnati, Ohio, as
am told, were not included among those who
were pledged to the Montgomery ameadm mont as a