Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1859-09-30
ITonry clay ON Tho rrreprcs.abIe Conflict

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Henry Clay on the urrePrcssable Conflict
The Democratic speakers. aud presses,
have All at once discovered that HENEx
lCLAF gag'n great man, and are avishiug
THEFT falsome and disgusting praises upon
him, in tho hope Of inducing some of biz
admirers to vote the Democratic tickets
They even have the audacity and brazen
impudence to claim that Henry Clay advo-
Gated the measures that their party now
do, and are busily engaged in garbling ex-
tracts from his speeches, to give q seeming
sembiancc of truth to their assertions 2
When il is known that Henry Clay was
the greater part Of his life member Of the
4 Colonization Society; thatit was one ofthe
dearest objects Of his life to procure the
gradual emancipation of Slavery in Ken
tucky; that he actually devised y plan for
that purpose, which only failed by few
votes; that it was through his means that
the Missouri Compromise was adopted,
prohibiting slavery northof SO deg, 80 min; ;
that he effected the abolishhent of the
savetradc in the District Of Columbia, and
would have abolished slavery itself there,
| if it could have been done; that he stated
in his great speech in tho United States
Senate on the Compromiso measures Of
1850 that no earthly object could induce
him to vote for extending Slavery over one
more foot of territory;--we say, when all
this is known, does it not show a great deal
of hnpudencc in these slavery-extending
speakers and presses, to claim that if Clay
was now alive, he mould vOte the Demo
cratic ticket Out upon such pusillaumous
knavery and hypocrisy.
If Henry Clay was alive to-day, he would
be Republican, for the doctrines advoca-
ted by that party, are in substance those
advocated all life long by him, especially
y that in regard to slavery, which is, "That
}, Slavery is wrong, morally, socially, and po-
) litically, but that the FREQ States have no
right to meddle with it in tho Slave States
where it exists by virtue of local law; but
that Congress has the right to prohibit its
extension, and that it is its duty to do So"
They also claim the right to speak of the
evils of Slavery, not only of its evils to the
slave himself, but also to the white laboring
man, and tho numerical and dishonest
strength it gives the South in the popular
: branch of Congress, and in elccting Pres
ident and Vico President of the United
States And if by agitation, the Slave
States can be made to voluntarily emanci-
pate and colonize their slaves themselves,
the Republican party will have accomplished
all it coutemplates or desires. That is what
Henry Clay wished to do, as our readers
can see by the following extract taken from
3 speech of his made before the American
Colonization Society, some years previous
to his death:
awe are reproached with doing mischief
f by the agitation of this question. The so
cety goes into no household to disturb its
domestic tranquility; it addresses itself tc
no slaves, to weaken their obligations ot
, obedience. It seeks to effect no mans prop
Q erty. 1t neither has the power nor the will
to affect the property Of any one, contrary
to his consent. The execution of its scheme
, would augment, instead of diminishing, The
value of the property left behind The so
o ciety, composed Of free men, concerns itSel
n only with the free. Collateral consequences
. we are not responsible for. 1t is not thi
F, society which has produced the great mora
q revolution which the age exhibits. Wha
}. would they, who thus reproach us, hav
done? If they would reprcss all tendencie
toward Liberty and ultimate emancipation
rs they must do more than put down the ber
ID eyolent efforts of this society. They mus
le 90 back to the era Of our Liberty and IndC
70 pendence, and muzzle the cannon whic
! thunders its annual joyous return. The
~ must revive the slavetrade, with all its trai
le of atrocities They must suppress the worl
to ings of British pbilanthrophy, seeking t
ameliorate the condition Of tho unlortunat
West Indian slaves. They must arrest tn
:" career of South American deiverence fror
At thraldom. They must blow out The NOR;
r. lights around US, and extinguish that grea
re est torch Of all, which America presents t
r benighted world, pointing the way to the
- rights, their liberties and their happines
:" and when they have achieved all these pu
o. poses their work will be yet Incomplete
G. They must penetrate the human soul, an
eradicate the light of reason and the love
liberty. Then, and not till then, when un
vetsal darkness and despair prevail, can 20
tn perpetuate slavery, and repross all sympi
he thy and all humane and benevolent effor
of among freemen, in behalf of the unhapp
O. portion of ourraee who are doomed TO bouC
be age" ~ ,a'a & ..7
is Mn. DoRsHEnER.-M Erastus Brook
president of the American State CONVEX