Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1859-07-22
SPEECH OF HON. JACOB CoLAMER

At the late Republican State Convention,
Senator Collamer was requested to address
the ASSEMBLY,.
By way of introduction, Mr. Collamer said
| his remarks would be made in a converse
tional form with no pretense of rhetorical
display. He should give them, not an ora
ton, but talk.
A new and difficult problem was In the
way of being worked out in our country, viz
how, with the fundamental ideas OF our
Government when it was formed, in favor OF
the liberty and equality of men, and with Il
practical administration of it such as we now
have, in direct conflict with those ideas, the
nation was to make progress, or to what end
To the men who framed the Declaration OF
Independence, its great assertions as to the
| rights of man, were no mere "glittering gem
eralities, but propositions of deepest i'm
port, not to be assented to because thus for
mally set forth, but set forth because they
were true. They were in fact declared by
the puritan settlers Of New England, who
mad III first platform Of y popular govern
luent in the cabin Of the M4ydower. The
ideas Of the divine rights Of kings of supe-
riority by birth, of inequality before the law
between one human b5ing and another, in
their mind were to have no place in this
country In their view the doctrine of the
natural equality Of men needed no argument
to maintain it,-differences in color, race or
talent entered not into 1.-THE weak equal
before God and the law with the strong,
were not to be oppressed but aided by them.
Everything in the history of the formation of
the L. S. Constitution shows that the men
of that day expected slavery in this country
to gradually die out,-the thought of
strengthening and extending 1t was not ad-
mitted at the South any more than at
the North In fact the intelligent
men of the South frankly admit now,
that such was the state of sentiment there in
those days; but they say they have changed
their views,-that they now believe that
slavery has divine sanction, that natural
and christian principles agree in having a
few to rule and the majority to labor for |
them. They admit that Mr.. Jefferson did
not believe in the right of slavery, and ex-
pected to have it soon come to au end in the
country; but they think if he were living
now be would lake the same ground which |
they now take.
There is a set of men, such as Winthrop |
Ketchum, Rves and Others, who say the |
way to get out of all the difficulty on the |
subject of slavery is for us to stop talking
about it. But can the talk stop? Did ire |
make the occasions for talk Did zoe annex
Teras, and on purpose to add power TO the
slave States? Did ice repeal the Missouri
Compromise Act? Do zee go in for getting
Cuba, and for fillibustering generally, wher-
ever there is a chance to get slave Territory
Do zoe 20 IN for letting 'ie oia'e-lraue DC
.,.noQ again? Our action has been, and is
wholly on the defensive. The aggressive
movements come all from the other side, and
the remonstrative gentlemen referred to,
might better direct their discourse to those
who compose it. This eternal demand that
whatever is done to strengthen Slavery, we
are not to talk against it, reminded him of
the Alabamian who, when a by-stander from
the North demonstrated against 4 proposed
application of lynch law to some one, said to
HIM " Stranger, look here; this is land
o. liberty; we shall lynch this fellow, if toe
please and you shall not say word about it.. "
They ask us what we will do if we get the
control of the Government? We answer,
8 stop your torong doings.' 1t is great thing
to stop the further progress of lfe-consum
ing disease, and to give Nature chance to
bring the patient back to health.
As to the doctrine of Toombs and others,
that the Constitution, by its own power,
carries slavery into all the United States
territory, and that the restriction of the
Missouri Compromiss Act was under novel
pretense that there was power ID Congress to
do so, under the Constitution, the notorious
truths OF history declared its falsity. From
the earliest days of the Government down to
Polk's time, Congress repeatedly legislated
against the spread of Slavery into the Terri
tories Even in the case of the Territory of |
Orleans (Louisiana), where there were slaves |
when we acquired it in 1903, Congress for
babe the introduction of more slaves not |
even from the slave States, were any slaves |
which had been imported after 1898 into
those States (where the slave trade was al |
lowed under the Constitution until l608), |
to be taken there, thus showing thai. the cessa-
tion of slavery was looked upon as an ap-
event and that, just as far as Con-
gress had power, it was expected to use it to
check the extension of slavery. The assertions
Ct The Republican Platform on this subject are
true, let Judge Taney say what he pleases
about it.
When it was seen that by the approaching |
settlement of the N. W. Territory by free
men, the political power of the slave States
would be lessened, Mr.. Calhoun started the
doctrine that there must be as many slave
States as free States, and to bring up that
balance of power Texas must be admitted
with the right to make ofitself four more slave
States. That admission was the leader to
all the evils which have followed. He, Mr..
c., opposed it in Congress with all his
might,-and, truth to say, the people of this
State then seemed to have very little feeling
about it. The consequences of that act they |
did not foresee. From that day to this the
power and influence of the government, in
all its departments, has been applied to
strengthen the Slave Statss-to give politi-
cal power to mere ohgarehy Of slayehoid-
ers. Not a measure of any great consequence
oo,,ll La ,&>d ap IN Copo-o~s >ynoyf under |