Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1858-04-15
GROWS SPEECH.
[coNcLuDED FROM FIRST PAGE.

midnight hour on the banks of Lake Luzerne
the liberties of their country, were, in The eyes
Of all Europe, rebels against society, and lived
heretics, fanatics, and agitators !; and in most
instances have fallen victims to the prevailing
prcjudiccs and vices which they combated. Yet
such are the retributions of Heaven on earth
that the crucifiers of the worlds redeemers
have been forced to pay homage at their graves
when dead
The President in his special message on Kan
sas, seems to have imbibed the spirit, adopted
the tone, temper, and language OF George Ill,
IN his proclamatons snd ufanifestoeS against
the American colonies While thus initiating
his great prototype, let him take warning by
his example how he forces q wronged and out
rArcd people to appeal to the god of battles
bilious of being the Nero OF the liberties Of his
country.
In my Judgment, the first gun fired by
United States soldier in an attempt to force
this Lecompton fraud upon the people of Kan
sas, will light flame that seas of blood may
not be able to extinguish. 1t will be but the
echo of the British riusketry, in the streets of
Boston, on the 18th of April, l7T5. ltwould
be but another struggle in vindication OF the
great truth of the Declaration of Independence
that all governments derive their just powers
from the consent Of the governed.
From my personal acquaintance with the
frse-Ssate men of Kansas, and what l know
Of their character-theSe descendants OF War
ren Putnam, Green, and Wayne-when fore
cd, in submitting to injustice and wrong, to
point beyond which endurance ceases to be
virtue, will prove themselves no degenerate
sons Of noble sires Whenever any portion of
the American people shall become so callous
to a sense of Justice, and so dead to the rights
which belong to freemen, as tamely to submit
to G usurpation, by fraud and violence, of all
the powers of their government, then, indeed
will they be fit for slaves
Mr. Chairman, injustice, once enthrOned in
power, ever strives, by every device of taunt
and jeer, to divert attention from its enormi-
ties, and to avoid, if possible, oil discussion of
its abuses. The weapons of selfsatished
conservatism, employed since the world began
to uphold its injustice and wrong, or to per-
petuate its ill-gotten power, has been to excite
popular prejudice by crying " destructive"
"sgrarian," leyeer," fanatic or some 9TH
er epithet made odious by sceptered cruelty
and wrong Such have been the arguments
OF prejudice and power from the time Socrates
swallowed the hemock, and Calico quiyered
on the rack.
The history of to-day proves that power ard
wrong have not ceased to rely for their SUI
port upon attempts to excite the unworthy
prejudces of human nature by the clamor Of
startling and odious epithets. BY such means
does the President strive to gloss over the
blacklist page Of American history, written
within the last four years, by the administra
ton and its miaions, in the woes Of Kansas
It's soil is red with the blood of its murdered
citizens, and its atmosphere darkened with the
smoke Of their burning dwellings, while women
and children flee to the savage tribes of the
wilderness to find protection against their less
merciful white pursuers With the wrongs of
this people unredressed, and their supplications
for justice and the rights of freemen still ring
ing in the ears of the President, he declares
that Kansas has, for some years. occupied
too much of the public attention. 1t is high
time this should be directed to far more i'm
portant objects"
What more important object can this gov
ernment have than to guard the hearthstone
of the hardy pioneer as he goes forth into the
wilderness to found new States and build up
new empires What higher duty has it to
perform than to secure to the citzen-the hum
hlest and most obscure, as well as to the high
est and most exalted--the rights guaranteed
TO him by the Constitution of his country In
Kansas, from the first, these have been tram
pied in the dust. Hence, Kansas has, for some
years, occupied the public attention. Is it
possible that the chief magistrate of the re-
public can find any more impor tant object for
the attention of the government than the pro-
lection of the rights and liberties of American
citizens, ruthlessly violated under the flag Of
their country, unless the nobler and better i'm
pulses Of human nature expired in his bosom
as the last drop of democratic blood eozed
from his veins
Kansas wants peace !; not the peace of ser
vile submission to, brute force but the peace that
Justice ever brings. The country wants quiet
and repose not the quiet Of the graveyard
or the repose of death, but the quiet and re-
pose secured by liberty, maintained by law
But so long as the power Of this government
Ia welded to fasten an odious despotism upon
Kansas. and to propagate the institutions of
human bondage, so long there will and can be
no peace You can give peace to Kansas. re-
pose to the country-end forever this slavery
agitation--if you will bring back the govern
ment to the policy Of the fathers, and re-estab-
lsh In its administration their maxims of JUS
tice and humanity.