The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1860-02-02

peuueHce anu your Constltutl0H are founded :
it is the practical application Of the Declare.
ton of Independence on the government of the
Territories Its very existence sets completely
at nought Mr.. Douglass doctrine and historical
construction, and the dwarfsh hand of the dem
agogue tries in vain to tear this bright page out
of your annals. Cheers. The ordinance OF
1887 stands written on the very gate-posts of
the Northwestern States; written on every
grain field that waves in the breeze on every
factory that dots the course of their rushing
waters, on every cottage that harbors thrifty
freemen; written in every heart that reioices
over the blessings of liberty. Long-continued
applause. There it stands, in characters of
light. Only blind man cannot see it; only a
fool can misunderstood it; only knave can
wilfully misinterpret it. Repeated cheers.
Such is Mr.. Douglass principle of popular
sovereignty in its logical and historical aspect
apparently adopting the doctrine that slavery
is the creature of local law only and fighting
against Congressional slave code, but, on the
other hand, admitting the very principle on
which protection to slave property becomes a
logical necessity; and again assuming the
ground that slave property may be introduced
where there is no local law, but explaining
away the logical consequences of that doctrine
by the transparent sophistry of unfriendly legs-
lation; dragging the proudest exploits of Amer
lean craftsmanship into the dust emasculating
the Declaration of Independence, because in
compatible with its principles; setting aside the
ordinance of 1887, because that stern fact is a
conclusive historical argument against it; a
jesuitical piece of equivocation and double
dealing, unable to stand before the criticism OF
logical mind, because it is mixture of glar-
ing contradictions; unable to stop the aodr Of
principles and interests, because 1t Is at todT
Nth ITSELF Applause. 1t is true, its principal
champion worked hard to cover with bullying
boisterousness the moral cowardice from which
it sprang; but In vain. He mistakes the mo-
tive power which shapes the actions of free ma
tions. Having no moral convictions of his own
to stand upon, he could never address himself
to tie moral sense Of the people. Sensation.
Having no moral convictions of his own This
is grave charge, but / know what l say.
respect true convictions wherever | find them.
Among the fre-eaters of the South, there are
men who speak of the moral basis of slavery,
and believe i'll it; who speak of the blessings
of servitude, and believe in it, who assert that
slavery is right, and believe it. Atrocious as
their errors may be, and deeply as l deplore
them, yet | respect their convictions as soon as
| find them out But look into the record of
the champion of popular sovereignty;" scan
it from syllable to syllable and then tell me,
you Douglasites of the South, do you find one
word there indicating a moral conviction that
slavery is right? And you Douglastes of the
North, who are in the habit of telling us that
you are the true anti-slavery men, and that pop
ular sovereignty will surely work the overthrow
of the institution did your master ever utter a
similar sentiment? Do you find in his record
one word of sympathy with the downtrodden
and degraded? One spark of the humane phi
lTu, r,l~> l.
ton Of the outraged dignity of human nature
One word which might indicate moral con-
viction that slavery is 1OrOng2 Not onel
But one thing he does tell you; " do not
care Uhether StdUery be Uoted up or do,on -
There is then a human heart that does not care !
Sir, look over this broad land, where the strug-
gle has ragged for years and years; and across
the two oceans, around the globe, to the point
where the far West meets the far East over
the teeming countries where the cradle of man
kind stood and over the workshops of civil
cation in Europe, and over those mysterious re-
gions, under the tropical sun, which have not
emerged yet from the night of barbarism to the
daylight of civilized life--and then tell me, how
many hearts do you find that do not tremble
with mortal anguish or exultant Joy as the
scales of human freedom or human bondage go
up or down? Look over the history of the world,
heart the first throbbings of aspiring dignity,
down to our days, when the rights of man have
at last found bold and powerful champion in
a great and mighty Republic; where is the
page that is not spotted with blood and tears,
shed in that all-absorbing struggle; where a
chapter which does not tell the tale of iubilant
triumph or heart-breaking distress, as the scales
OF freedom or slavery went up or down? Loud
applause. But to day, in the midst of the
nineteenth century, in a Republic whose pro-
gramme was laid down in the Declaration of
independence, there comes man to you, and
tells you, with cynical GOODNESS, that he does
not care! And because he does not care, he
claims the confidence of his countrymen and
the highest honors of the Republic Because
he does not care, he pretends to be the repre-
sentative statesman of this age
Sir, | always thought that he can be no true
statesman whose ideas and conceptions are not
founded upon profound moral convictions Of
right and wrong. Applause. What then, shall
we say of him who boastingly parades his in
difference as a virtue? May we not drop the
discussion about his craftsmanship, and ask,
What is he worth as a man? Repeated cheers.
Yes; he mistakes the motive power which
shapes the events of history. j find that in the
life offree nations, mere legal disquisitions never
turned the tide of events, and mere constitu-
tional constructions never determined the tend
ency of an age. The logic of things goes its
steady way, immOvable to eloquence and deaf
to argument 1t shapes and changes laws and
Constitutions according to its immutable rules,
and those adverse to it will prove no effectual
obstruction to its onward march. In times of
great conflicts, the premptingS and dictates of
tie human conscience are more potent than all
the inventive ingenuity Of the human brain.
The conscience of free people, when once
fairly ruling the action of the masses, will never
fail to make new laws, when those existing are
contrary to its tendency, or it will put its own
construction upon those that are there. Your
disquisitions and Probabilities may be used as
weapons and stratagems in a fencing match Of
controversing parties; but, powerless as they are
before the conscience of man, posterity will re-
member them only as mere secondary incidents
of a battle of great principles, in which the
strongest motive powers of human nature were
the true combatants.
There is the slavery question:; not a mere
occasional quarrel between two sections of
country divided by a geographical line, not
mere contest between two economical interests
for the preponderance, not a mere wrangle
between two political parties for power and
spoils but the great struggle between the hui
man conscience and burning wrong, between
advancing civilization and retreating barbarlsm,
between two antagonistic systems of social or
ganization. Cheers. In vain will our i'm
potent mock giants endeavor to make the test
question of our age turn a ridiculous logical
bubble, or a paltry legal technically, ap-
plause !; in vain will they invent small lodges,
and call them great principles; !" in vain will
they attempt to drag down the all-absorbing