St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1858-12-09
ThaddeuS Stephens,

This gentleman who has been elected to
the next Congress, from Pennsylvania, was
a member in 1850; and On the 10th Of
February Of that year, delivered speech
Of which we give an extract below He
will be apt to add greatly to Mr.. Buchan-
ans felicity during the last years Of his
reign.
Il am opposed to dcspotis.n throughout the
world. 1nmy judgement, mott only the Slave
States, but the General Government recognize
ing as it does, slavery, is a despotism X 4 II
Dcspotism does not depend upon the number of
rulers. 1t may have one ruler or many. Rome
was despotism under Nero: SO she was under
the Trumvirate. Athens was despotism I'M
der her Thirty Tyrants; under her Four nun
dred Tyrants; under her Three Hundred w.
rants. In this government, the free
white citizens are the rulers-the sovereigns
! as We delight to be called. AL others are sub
jects **<
''The rulers and the ruled are Of all colors,
from the clear white Of the Caucasian tribes to
the swarthy Ethiopian. The former BY court
esy, are called white, the latter black. In
this government the subject has no rig) its, So
cial personal and political. He has no voice
in the laws which govern him. He can hold
no property. His very wife and childre are
not his. His labor is anothers. He and all
that appcrtain to him are the absolute property
OF his rulers. He is governed, bought, sold,
punished, executed, by laws to which he never
gave his assent, and by rulers he never chose
lie is not serf. merely, with half the rig hts of
men, like the subjects Of dcspotic Russia; but
q naked slave, stripped Of every right which
God and nature give him, and which the high
spirit Of our revolution declared inalienal,le-
which he himself could not surrender, and
which man could not take from him. Is he
not. then the subject of Il despotic rule
''The slaves Of Athenssand Rome were free
IN comparison. They had some rights
acquire some property; could choose their own
masters, and purchase their own freedom. and.
when free could rise in social and polite al
life. The slaves Of America, then, lie under
the most absolute and grinding depotism, that
the world ever saw. But who are the despots?
The rulers Of the Countrywide sovereign peo-
pie! Not merely the Shareholder who cracks
the lash. He is but the instrument in tho
hands OF despotism. That despotism is the
government of the Slave States, and the United
States, consisting of all it's rulers, all the free
citizens. Do not look upon this as paradox,
because you and and the sixteen millions or
rulers are free. Nicholas of Russia is free
The grand Sultan of Turkey is free. The
butcher Of Austria is free. Augustus, An
thony and Lepidus were free while they
drenched Rome in blood. The thirty Tyrants,
the Four hundred Tyrants, the Three Thous-
and Tyrants, were free while they bound their
countrymen in chains. You, and I, and the
sixteen millions, are free, while we fasten iron
chains, and riyet manacles on four millions of
our fellow men; tear their wives and children
from them seperate them; sell them and doom
them to perpetual, eternal bondage. Are wa
not then despots-despots such as history acW
brand and God abhor.