Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-09-08


must be abjured in their conduct towards
each other on earth, have finally discarded
Justice md humanity from their systems,
broken up nearly all the existing oombina-
tons for spiritual ends, and attempted to con-
duct affairs Of government on principles
equally in violation Of the constitution and Of
the eternal hws Of Gods Providence for the
regulation ofthe Universe.
he referred here to the high and intensely
exciting debate of 1850, and of the position
which he then took, that the cOmmOtion Of
the day was not the Union dying but the
parties that were stricken with paralysis.
Bat;
All Of these parties have been composed Of
citizens, not few but many citizens; in the
aggregate, all the citizens Of the Republic
They were not ignorant, willful or dishonest
citizens, but sincere, fnithfu and useful mem
bers Of the State. The parties Of our country,
what are they ct any time, but ourselves, the
people of our country Thus the faults Of
past administration and Of course the Tespon-
sibility for existing evils, are brought directly
home TO yourselves and myself-to the whole
people
Mr.. Seward now made historical disquisi-
ton to discover where the lamentable nation
al departure from sound policy had taken
place. He found the departure from the
right line of just policy in the Missouri Com
promise:
And so a compromise, which divided the
hat 10 hON
and capital in slaves, between freedom and
slavery, a memorable compromise, which,
after trial Of only thirly-four years, proved
to be effective only in its concessions to
slavery, while its greater guarantees Of
freedom were found unavailing and worth
less.
As to the Africans among US:
1t cannot be denied that the African races
among us are abiect although their condition,
and even their presence here are due not to
their will or fault but to our own, and that
they have direct interest in the question Of
slavery. How natural has it been to assume
that the motive of those who have protested
against the extension of slavery, was an un-
natural sympathy with the negro instead of
what it always has really been, concern for
the welfare of the white man. There are
few, indeed, who ever realise that the whole
human race suffers somewhat in the atfiictie77
and calamities which befall the humblest
most despised of its members.
Asto the alarms about the Slavery ques-
ton:
Moreover, alarms Of fdisuniOn were sounded,
and strange political inventions like the float
ing FIRE ships sent down the St. Lawrence,
by the besieged in Quebec, to terrify the army
Of Wolf on the Island of St. Louis appeared
suddenly before US whenever we proposed to
consider in good earnest the subject of Fed
eral slavery.
We1ove, and we ought to love the fellow
ship of our slsyeholding brethren. How nat
ural, therefore, has it been to make the con-
cessions so necessary to silence their COM
plants, rather than by seeming impractibility
in what was thought matter of Indifference,
to lose such genial companionship.
Other nations, we have assumed, are jeal
Gus of our growing greatness. They have
censured US perhaps with unjust asperity, for
our apostacy in favor of slavery. How nat
ural and even patriotic has it been on our
part to manifest by persistence, our contempt
and defiance of such interested and hostile
animadversions. Besides, though slavery is
indeed now practically local and peculiar
institution of the South, it was not long ago
the habit and practice of the whole American
people. "
Since then, he said:
We have added territory after territory,
and region after region with the customary
boldness of feebly resisted conquerors, not
merely neglecting to keep slavery out of our
new possessions, but actually removing all
the barriers against it which we found stand
ing at the times Of conquest. In doing this
we have 5e6ed the moral opinions of man
kind, overturned the laws and systems of our
fathers, and dishonored their memories by
declaring that the unequaled and glorious
constitution which they gave us, carries
with it. as it attends our eagles, not freedom
and personal rights to the oppressed, but
slavery and hateful and baleful commerce
in slaves wherever we win a conquest by
sea or land over the whole habitable globe.
We may add conquest to con-
quest, for resistance to our ambition daily
grows more and more impossible, until we
surpass in extent and apparent strength the
greatest empires of ancient or modern times,
all the while enlsrging the area Of African
bondage; but after our already ample ex-
perience, think no one will he bold enough
to deny that we equally increase the evils
of discomfort and the dangers of domestic fac
ton.
You and l indeed understand now very
well how it is that slavery in the Territories
of the United States is left open by the Con-
stitution to our utmost peaceful opposition,
while within the slave States it is enrenched
behind local constitutions beyond the reach
| of external LEGISLATION.
Ny humble advice, then, fellow-citizens, i;
that we return and re-establish the Origina
policy of the nation, and henceforth hold, a!
we did in the beginning, that slavery IS and
must be only purely local, temporary anC
| exceptional institution, confined within tbs
slave States where it already exists; while
Freedom is the general, normal, enduring anC
permanent condition of society within thl
Jurisdiction and under the authority Of tht
| Constitution of the United States.
counsel thus for a simple reason, incapa
bic of illumination. Slavery, however
may be at any time or in any place excused
is at all times and everywhere unjust and in
human in its very nature; while freedom
however it may be at any time or in an.
place neglected, denied, or abused, is in it
nature right, just and bene6cent. 1t is nev
er, under any circumstances, wise to persever
voluntarily in extending or certifying an in
stitution that is intrinsically wrong or cruel
It can never be unwise, whenever it is posi-
ble to defend and fortify an existing iustitu
ton that is founded on the rights Of Huma
Nature
All nations in their turns have practice
slavery. Most of them have abolished it,
The world over, the wealthiest and mos
powerful have been those which tolerated
least, and which earliest and most completed
abolished it. Virginia and Texas are throw
into panic even now by the appearance
even the suspicion of handful of men with
in their borders, instigating civil war. Mas
achusetts and Vermont de6ed British invl
sion, backed by treason, eighty years ago.
Mr.. Seward here traced the introductio
and history of slavery in the United State
coming down to our present condition.
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