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

This gentleman who has been elected to
the next Congress, from Pennsylvania, was
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.
II am opposed to despotisn throughout the
| world 1nmy judgement, otssonly the Slave
| States, but the General Government recogn1z-
| ing as it does, slavery, is a despotism. X 4 II II
Despotism 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 un-
der her Thirty Tyrants; under her Four nun
dred Tyrants; under her Three Hundred Ty-
rants. = \ 4 In this government, the free
white citizens are the rulers-the sovereigns
az we delight to be called. AL others are SUBJ
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
esq, are called white, the latter black. In
! this government the subject has no rights, 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 alld all
that appertain to him are theabsolute property
OF his rulers. He is governed, bought, sold,
gave his assent, and by rulers he never Chose
He is not serf, merely, with half the rig hts 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
spirit Of our revolution declared inalienable-
which he himself could not surrender, and
which man could not take from him. Is he
not, then, the subj Jet of q .despotic rule.
''The slaves Of Athenssand Rome were free
in 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, ths,t
the world ever saw But who are the despots?
The rulers Of the countryside sovereign peo-
pie! Not merely the Shareholder who cracks
the lash. He is but the instrument in tho
hands Of despotism. That despotism is tho
government of the Slave States, and the United
States, consisting of all its rulers, all the free
citizens. Do not look upon this as paradox,
because you and and the sixteen millions OF,
rulers are free. Nicholas of Russia is free
Inc 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 we.
not then despots- despots such as history viN
brand and God abhor.