The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1860-02-01

infant mankind felt in its heart the first
throbbing of aspiring dignity, down to
our days when the rights of man have st
last found n bold and powerful champion
in great and mighty Republic; where is
the page that is not spotted with blood
and tears shed in that all absorbing strug
g,e? where chapter that does not tell
the talo of jubilant triumph or heart
breaking distress, as the scales of freedom
or slavery went up or down? cloud
applause.) But to-day, in the midst of
the nineteenth century, in republic
whose programme was laid down in the
Declaration Of Independence, there comes
81 man to you, and tells you with cvnic
GOODNESS, that he does not care And
because he does not care, he claims the
confidence of his countrymen and the
highest honors ofthe Republic! Because
he does not care, he pretends to be the
representative statesman of this age!
Sir, | Always thought that he can be
no true statesman whose ideas and con
ceptions are not founded upon profound
moral convictions of right and wrong
(APplause.) What then shall We say of
him who boastingly parades his indifler-
ence as q virtue! May we not drop the
discussion about his craftsmanship, and
ask: What is he worth us man? IRE
peated cheers.) Yes, lie mistakes the
motive power which shapes the events Of
history. | find tina: in the life of free ma
tons mere legal disquistion never turned
the tide Of events, and mere constitutional
constructions never determined the tend
cney Of an nge. The logic Of things goes
it steady way, immoyaJle 10 eloquenco
and deaf to argument. 1t shapes and
changes laws and constitutions according
to its mmutable rules, and those adverse
to it will prove no etf.ctual obstruction
t. its onward march. In times of great
conflicts, the prOmptings and dictates Of
human cORScitnce are more potent than
all the inventive ingenuity Of the human
brain. The conscience of q free people,
when once fairly ruling the action of the
masses, viii never fai! to make new laws,
when those existing are contrary to its
tendency, CT it will put It's own construc-
upon those that are there. Your dis
QUESTIONS and Probabilities may be used
as weapon, end stratagems in fencing
match of controvcrsine parties, but pow
ellcss as they are before the conscience of
man, posterity will remember them only
as mere secondary incidents Of the battle
of great principe, in which the strongest
motive y, wers OF human nature were the
true .mbatsnts.
There is the slavery question:; not a
mere occasional quarrel between Two sec
tons ofthe country, divided by Il geog-
raphical line; not mere contest between
two economical interests for the pre2ond-
GRANGE; not mere wrange between two
political parties for power and spoils; but
the great struggle between the human con-
science and burning wrong, between al
vancin. civilization and rctrcat;ng bar
barism, between two antagonstic systems
of social organization. (Chcers.) In
vain will oar impotcnt mock giants en-
deayor to make the test-qnestion of our
age turn on ridiculous logical quibbIe,
or paItry legal technically (applause0
in vain with they invent small lodges and
call them ''grcat principles;' i'll vain will
they attempt TO drag down the aIl-absorb-
ing contest to the level of 4 mere pot
o.,so qnarrel between two rival candid
atcs for Presidential nomination. (Ap-
plause.) The wheel OF progressing events
will crush them to atoms as it has crush
so many abnornities Cheers and q flu
ture generation will perhaps read on Mr..
Douglas tomb stone the inscription -
''utIore les tha Queer sort of a statesman,
who, when the great battle of slavery was
fought, pretended to say that he did not
care whether slavery be voted up or yot-
cd down." (Cheers.)
Bat as long as the moral vitality of this
nation is not exhausted, Mr.. Douglas and
men like him will in vain endeavor to re-
duce the people to that disgusting state Of
moral Indifference, which he himself is
not ashamed to boast of | solemrly pro-
test that the American people is not to be
measured by Mr.. Douglas low moral
standard. However degraded some of
our politicians may be, the progress Of
the struggle will show that the popular
conscience is still alive, end that the peo-
pie do CARE. loud and continued ap-
| plause1