Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-07-02
REPU LICAN PRIN NCIPLES

| SPEECH OF
HON. ABR ii A NJ LIN DIN,
At tho Republican State Convention,
June 16, 1898.
If we could first know ,chere we are, and
,oh,ther we are tending, we could then better
| Judge what to do, and hoU to do it.
We are now far into the Gf1h year, since
| policy was initiated, with the aro,oed object
and confident promise of putting an end to
Slavery agitation.
Under the operation of that policy, that
agitation has not only not ceased, but has con-
santly augmented
| In ma opinion, it piH not cease, until a
cr,sis shall have been reached and passed. ga
house divided against itself cannot stand" /
believe this Government cannot endure per-
manently half slaue and half free. do not
expect the Union to be dissolved-I don't ex-
pect the house to fall-but do expect it will
cease to be divided 1t will become all one
thing, or all the other. Either the opponents
of Slavery will arrest the further spread of it,
and place it where the public mind shall rest
| in the belief that it is in course Of ultimate
| extinction; or its advocates will push 1t for
ward till it shall become alike lawful in all
the States, old as well as ne,o-North as well
| as South. Have we no tendency to the latter
! condition?
| Let any one who doubts, carefully contem
plate that now almost complete legal combina
| tion-piece ofmachineryso of tospeak-compound-
| ed of the Nebraska doctrine and the Dred Scott
decision. Let him consider not only what
,cork the machinery is adapted to do, and hoo
ueH adapted but also let him study the
r. l..
ran, or rather Jail, if he can, to trace the evil
dencts Of design, and concert of action among
it's chief bosses, from the beginning. But, 50
far, Congress only, had acted; and an en-
dorSement by the people, real or apparent,
was Indispensable to sdue the point already
gained, and give chance for more. The new
| year of 1854 found Slavery excluded from
more than half of the States by State Consti-
tutions, and from most of the National Terri
tory hy Congressional prohibitions. I-oui
days later commenced the struggle, which
ended in repeating that Congressional prohi-
bition.
This opened all the national territory to
Slavery, and was the first point gained
This necessity had not been overlooked; hut
had been provided for, as well as might be,
in the notable argument of squatter sorereign-
H." otherwise called "sacred right of SELF
Jorernmeni,' which latter phrase, though
expressive of the ouly rightful basis of any
government, was so perverted in this at
tempted use of it as to amount to Just this
That if any one man chose to cnslave another
no third man shall be allowed to object.
That argument was incorporated into the Ne
braska bill itself, in the language which fol-
lows: "H being The true intent and meaning
"of this act not TO legislate Slavery into any
"Trritory or State, nor ertlude ii heretrom
shut TO iedre the people thereof perfectly FREE
''fo form and regulate their domestic institu-
''tions in their own ,Cdv, subject only to The
"Conaitntion Of The United &ates." Then
opened the roar of loose defamation in fa-
vor Of ''Squattcr sovereignty" and SACRED
right of self-government.
q But said Opposition members, 8. let Ut
be more specifc-let us amend the bill so a.
to expressly declare that the people of thu
Territory may exclude Slavery" "Not we,
said the friends of the measure; and dowr
they voted the amendment. While the Ne
braska bill was passing through Congress, a
la,o case, involving the question of n negro'
freedom, by reason of his owner having vol
UNFAIRLY taken him first into Free State ant
then a Territory covered by the Congression
al prohibition, and held him as a slave, fo
, a long time in each, was passing through tn
United States Circuit Court for the Distric
of Missouri and,botb Nebraska bill and law
suit were brought to a decision in the sam
I month of Nav 1854 The neero's name wa
q Dred Scott which name now DESIGNATE
the decision finally made in the case
Before the then next Presidential election
the law case came TO, and was argued in tn
Supreme Court of the United States but tn
9 decision of it was deferred until after tn
election. Still. before the election Senate
: Trumbull. on the floor oftbe Senate. reoues,
e the Ieading advocate of the Nebraska bilI
!, state b,, on;n;on whether the neonje of a re,
ritorv can constitutionallv exclude SLAYER
u from their limits, and the latter answers
) ..That is n Question for the Sunreme Court
- The election came. Mr. buchanan was ele
g TOD and the ;ndorse,ncn, such as II was q
5, cured That was the second noint game,
II Tho ;rdorsement bowever feIl short of
y oleor nonulor ma;ority hy nearly fnnr bn
v dred thousand vofes and 60 nerbans w
le not ovnrwheImingIv reIiahlo and satisE,ctor,
CT The outoo;no President. in his last annu
MESSAGE. as imnressiyelv as nossible ecbo
7, bock unon the neonle the ,reioL and au,ho,
sd n, Of The Endorsement
s, The Sunreme Court met aoaiu. thew d
oil mot announce their decision. hut ordered
y re-argument, The Presidential inauqurati,
a. came and still no decision of the Co1rt h
ne the ;orom;no President in his inaugural a
CT dress ferventlv exhorted the peonle to nbi
NJ bv the forthcoming decision. mbaltrern mia
ng be-. Then in few days, came the decisio