St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1858-11-25
Thadaeuy Stephens.

This gentleman who has been elected tc
tic next Congress, from Pennsylvania, was
9 member in 1850; and on the 10th OF
February of that year, delivered Il speech
Of which we give an extract below. He
vii! be apt to add greatly to Mr.. Buchan.
aa's felicity during the last years Of his
reign.
Il an opposed to despotis:n throughout the
world. lnmy Judgement, not,only the Slave
States, but the General Government recognize
ing as It does, slavery, is g despotism ;: = * ;:
Despct;sm does not depend upon the number Of
rulers. 1t may have one ruler or many. Rome
Was q despotism under Nero: so she was under
the Tcum7irate. Athens was despotisn IN
Ger her Thirty Tyrants; under her Four nun
&;red Iyrants; under her Three Hundred w.
! rants. :: : : = In this government, the free
! white citizens are the rulers-the soyereigus
IS VIC delight to be called AL others are sub
jects. x :: = ::
''Lhe rulers and the ruled are of all colors.
from the clear white OF the Caucasian tribes to
the s"altly Ethiopian. The former by court
esy, are called white, the latter black. In
this government the subject has no rights, So
cal, personal and political. He has no voice
III tie LAWS which, go"ern him. lie can hold
20 property. His very wife and children are
NOS hls. Ills labor is another's. He and all
Ehat appcltain to him are the absolute property
CT lis rulers. lie IS governed, bought, sold,
punished, executed, by laws to which he never
gaze his assent, and by rulers he never Chose
ile IS net ser, merely, with half the rights of
men, like the subjects Of despotic Russia; but
naked slave, stripped Of every right which
God and nature give him, and which the high
splr1t OF car revolution declared inalienable-
which tie himself could not surrender and
which man could not take from him. Is he
nos, then, the subject Of a despotic rule.
t;;:Ehe slaves OF Athens and Rome were free
IL comparison. They had some rights-could
acquire some property; could choose their own
masters, and purchase their own freedom, and,
when free could rise in social and political
life. The slaves Of America then, lie under
the most absolute and grinding depotism, that
the world ever saw. But who arc the lcspots?
The rulers Of the Countrywide sovereign peo-
pie. Not merely the Shareholder who cracks
the Lash. lie is but the instrument in the
hands Of despotism. That despotism is the
government Of the Slave States, and the United
States, consisting of Ill it's rulers all the free
citizens. DO not look upon this as a paradox
because you and I and the sixteen millions of
rulers are free. Nicholas Of Russia is free
Ihe 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, arc free, while we fasten iron
chains, and rivet manacles on four millions Ct
our fellow men: tear their wives and children
from them; seperatc them; sell them and doom
them to perpetual, eternal bondage. Are we
not then despots-despots such as history qviN
brand and GOD o5hor