Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1859-12-28
EXTRACTS FROM THE SPEECH OF
HON. B. F. WADE IN THE US.
SENATE, Dec. 18th, 1859.

Mr. Wade continued. For the bases
purposes, the great party to which he belong
ed, had been charged with completely IL
this affair, but he treated the charge with
scorn and contempt. 1t was so entirely
overstrained that it fell on his car without
giving him single emotion. But he knew
what the effect of such a charge would bC
in that part of the country where Jealousy
existed with regard to the acts and motives
of Northern men. The only statements
that can reach the ears of the Southern
people are one-sided, and the antidote to
this charge they will never get. No man
is allowed to express his sentiments at the
South, unless they are cut and trimmed to
suit public opinion. No Northern man is
now permitted to 90 into the South unless
he leaves his manhood and independence
| behind. Under these circumstances it is
not strange that the Southern people are
deluded respecting the state of Northern
feeling. They deem it important to exclude
inccndiary documents from their midst, but
he thought the most dangerous incendia-
rism was to be found in the speeches of
Southern men, when they tell their people
that the great party having control of all
the Free States sympathised with John
Browns raid. He regarded Brown as in
sane, and asked Senators to discriminate
between the man and his acts. If the
State of Virginia feels deeply at this incur
sion into her territory, and murder of her
citizens, what were the feelings of North
ern men few years ago, whose relations
and friends had gone into q far distant Ter
ritory and formed colonies there, weak and
feeble, and scattered through that wilder
ness, when they found it was the deliberate
purpose Of a great. powerful, and all-pcr-
vading party to drive them out, or coerce
them to obedience under institutions which
they abhorred from the bottom of their
soul. They were driven ont; they were
murdered in cold blood; their property was
destroyed. They appealed to Congress for
redress, and they only got insults here in
stead of sympathy. When l state this, l
state what | Go know. This Government
did at least connive at that land of conspi-
ratcrs, who, armed themselves lawlessly
with arms belonging to the Governments
invaded that territory, took possession of
the ballot-boxes, drove the citizens away
from the polls, drove them away from their
possessions, and exercised tyranny over
them; but that took place good ways of,
and didn't create the same excitement as
when a similar transaction comes nearer
home. In his judgement the only differ
ence between that case and this was that in
the case of Kansas, the invasion was made
with no other purpose than to introduce
slavery there at all hazards and by force
Of arms, whereas old John Brown and his
men, with like unlawful purpose, under
took to cxtirpate slavery from the State of
Virginia. The Freo State men there got
no consolation from the Government, but
one Senator used this language:-"We viii
subduc you; you are traitors; We will hang
every man of YOU
Mr.. Wade said he did not 60 back to
these things for the purpose Of justifying
John Brown and his crew in their invasion
of Virginia, but only to show why it is that
the men of the Free States to a considera-
bic extent 90 sympathise with this old hero.
In the darkest hour of Kansas, when her
rights were all in peril. and everything
looked gloomy there, and the Federal Gov
ernmcnt failed to interpose in her behalf,
then it was that old John Brown appeared
on the stage of action, armed himself as
well as he might, and commenced to do that
Justice to himself and his fellows that the
Government had denied He did it with n
heroism and determination that challenged
admiration from his friends, and even re-
spcct from his enemies. He drove the
Border Rufhans from the Territory and
a peace. Mr. Wade believed
that Brown was maddenod by the scenes of
blood he witnessed in Kansas, for he did
not think any sane man on earth would
have undertaken the enterprise he did at
Harpcr's Ferry. lie also said he never
had seen a single person who justified
Browd's raid, for the Northern people do
not sympathise with crime lie replied to
Mr. Johnson's criticisms on the Republican
Platform.
Mr.. Wade said he was not one Of those
Who supposed all Shareholders to be deeply
criminal. for he knew how habit and Gus
ON modify the feelings Of men. Wash
ngton was stakeholder, but he expressed !
limsclf in hopes that. that institution might
&c abolished by some means. How long
would he be permitted to remain in Virgin I
a now, and make such declarations? Mr..
Wade had nothing to say, when Slavery
vas kept at the South, but when they un- i
lertake to push it into Free Territory, C
where it does not exist, he would resist it, |
md never consent that Slavery should in ]
-ade one inch Of a Territory now free
'erhaps, had he been born at the South he t
would have been as fierce fre-eater as he t
vas now in defending himself against fire. V
Ie understood how these things were, and
ccused no man because he was Slavehol- L
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