The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1860-05-17

Speech Of Hon. Henry WaIdron in the
House of Representatives, ON the 2eth
I "pli'' iSoo. .L-.rs Tf7i.tHJ4a
Mr.. Chairman, the Thirty-Sixth Con
gress has reached the fifth month of its
first session. Itassembled in this Cap
itol with great and varied interests de-
mandiug consideration and attention.
The public creditors impatiently await
ed our coming, for they were on the
verge of bankruptcy and had long
served without their Just remuneration.
The plighted faith of our Government
was to be redeemed. The men whom
we came here to serve were pressing
upon our attention matters of vital i'm
portance. There were legitimate SUBJ
jects Of legislation before us: such as
the admission of new States, the organ
izati"n of new Territories, the home
stead bill, the Pacific railroad, the de-
velopment of our resources at home
and the protection of our interests
abroad. All these were subjects that
properly commended themselves to the
attention of an American Congress,
and our constituents had reason to ex-
pect that they would receive fitting
and careful consideration at our hands.
But, to the exclusion. of all these
matters, the irrepressible conflict -
breaks out. Before the sun goes down
on the first day of the session, the SUBJ
iject of slavery is introduced by the
Democratic party; and for eight long
weeks an organization of this House
was prevented by a discussion in which
passion took the place of reason, and
vituperation was the substitute for ar
gnmcflt. s7ao3 ianoissalsE0J nnoIlGag9fl
While the Republicans in this body
were in no-wise responsible for that
conflict, still, for one, can say that
the discussion was not unexpected
nor, more than that, was it unwe!come.
Whatever is across our pathway may
as well be reached and confronted at
one time as at another. No man can
close his eyes to the fact that there is
"a question now agitating this land
before which questions of finance and
tariffs, of protection and Improvement,
dwindle into insignifcance. 1t is
question which cannot be settled bv
compromises, nor dodged by time
serving expedients. 1t must he met
fairly and squarely, and in the light of
reason, justice, and humanity receive
its determination and abide its settle
ment. That question underlies all party
organizations, molds every party policy,
and goes to the root of all party con-
troversies. 1t is n question whether
the equal rights of men are to be af-
firmed in the Legislation and policy of
our Government, or whether the idea
of an oligarchy to be recognized, which
protects the interests of privileged
class at the expense of the toiling
millions of our Confederacy. The vital,
all-absorbinG issue of to-day is, whether
the Republic is to be perpetuated in
the faith, the spirit, the practice of its
founders, or whether it is to be perver-
ted in its policy and workings to sub
serve the interests of a baneful aristoc.
cray. Before that issue the counter
felt Democracy has Quailed and sue
cumbed; false to its name, faithless to
it's traditions, recreant to its professions,
it is now the ally of capital against
labor; the champion of caste and
privilege against equality and right.
When / speak of the Democratic
party, refer not to the organization
Of the past, for that party once recog-
nized the inalienable rights of man, and
to it's ears freedom had not become
hateful sound; but / speak of the
Democratic organization of to-day,
which has .espoused the cause of the
strong against the weak; of the rich
against the poor; of the opampered
capitalist against the hardy son of toll.
| speak of the party which is compelled,
by the slave power, to carry its black
flag and to fight its political battles
under the crushing burden of its
wrongs. Ispeak of the party which
would still further oppress and degrade
those who are now low in the scale of
humanity, and which would repress
that sympathy for the struggling which
a sentiment of benevolence or "a sense
VI JuoeiVC ihiSn piO u IL Vi ttldt
party, as controlled by the slave power
doing its bidding, registering is de-
crees, supporting its policy, and sus-
timing its candidates-that l speak.
| arraign it before the country as false
to the, policy of our revolutionary
fathers; as unfaithTnl to the obligations
of our common Constitution; as disloyal
to the integrity of the Union, and as
the betrayer and viliticr of the honest
industry of the land. These are the
charges. Now for the proof.
First, the Democratic party is ar
rayed against the policy and teachings
Of the Republicans of the Revolution
as well as of to-day. The principles
of our organization come down to us
in the Declaration of independence.
The sentiments of hostility to bondage
which we assert are but the echoes of
the ntterances Of onr fathers. They
believed the institution of African
slavery to be inconsistent with the
genius and hostile to the spirit of the
Government they had founded. When
they framed the Federal Constitution,
they thought it wrong to admit, by any
word in that instrument, "the idea Of
of property in man = they regarded
| the institution of chaftel slavery. as