The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1860-01-12
REVIEW OF MIR. eURRY's SPEECH.

MI. Ouffy, of Aihpdma, uelifefeQ IN the mouse
of Representatives on the 10th ult, is the ablest
as well as the most decorons and respectable
expression of Pro-Slavery views which the
country has seen for long time. He disdains
to follow the example of low personal malevo-
lence which has been set him by those with
whom he acts, and looks at the events and par
ties of the day from statesman's point of view.
BE acknowledges radical difference of senti-
ment between the North and the South as the
great source of difficulty; and while he freely
acquits the Republican party of completely with
John Brown, or with entertaining the views of
the Radical Abolitionsts, he insists that the in
evitable tendency of the party is towards Adolf
tionism; and hence he thinks the South should
not wait until Republicanism is invested with
the control of the Government, but that resist
ance or secession, should Immediately follow
the election of Republican President. He
says
81 am conscious of the fact that there are in
the Northern States two distinct AntiSlavery
organizations one represented by William
Lloyd Garrison, Phillips, May, and others; the
other represented by the Republican party of
the North and / repeat again, that / do not
hold the Republican party personally response
BILE either for the doctrines avowed or for the
measures advocated by the Garrison party.
have different purpose in the remarks that /
shall submit to-day and that is, to demonstrate,
if | am able, that those of you who now shrink
back from the doctrines avowed by that party,
will, either yourselves or through your success
sors, be driven to the assumption of these opin-
ions. In 1885, in an address issued by the An
ti-Slavery Society of Massachusetts, participated
In by William Lloyd Garrison and others of
that type of Anti-Slavery men, find recorded
these sentiments:
"'We have never advocated the right of
physical resistance on the part of the oppressed.
We assure our assailants that we would not
sacrifice the life of single stakeholder to
emancipate every slave in the United States
That is the opinion which was promulgated
officially by William Lloyd Garrison and those
whom my friend from New York Mr.. Clark
affirms are the Abolitionists proper. In 1859,
Wendell Phillips, a man who deserves the high
eulogium, Intellectually, that was paid him by
the distinguished member from Ohio Mr.. Cor
win in a speech made in Brooklyn, uses this
language, speaking of John Brown and his in
cursion into Virginia:
1t is the natural result of Anti-Slavery
teaching. For one, l accept it; l expected it.
"That is the position into which the CARR
sonians have been driven by this volume of
Anti-Slavery sentiment at the North. In 1852,
the Wing party of the Union, in their Presi-
Dental Convention-and believe two-thirds of
the Republican party belonged to that organi
zation-resolved that the compromise measures
of 1850, including the fugitive slave law, were
IL nd h
stance, the settlement of the Slavery question.
In six years from that time, you will find the
great State of Ohio, through its Republican
Convention, composed of two-thirds of that same
Wing party resolving that the fugitive slave
law ought to be repealed, as being destructive
of the rights of the States, and subversive of
the moral sense of mankind. What more, Mr..
Clerk ? Those Democrats who have fallen off
from our organization into the Republican par
ty were committed to the same extent by the
Democratic Convention of the same year and
yet they have been driven to the enunciation
and advocacy of extreme doctrines, from which,
three or four years ago, they would have shrunk
back with alarm and indignation"
Mr.. Curry presents various other facts in
proof of his assertion that the Anti-Slavery SEN
timent of the North continually tends to ultra
ism. Among these facts are the personal
liberty bills which have been enacted in Massa-
chusetts, Vermont, and Wisconsin, the under
ground railroads, the contributions for the cir
culation of incendiary pamphlets, " the wide
spread sympathy for murderer and a traitor"
the habeas corpus and naanddmus bills, "and
the impeachment Of Judicial officers for the exc
o,,+;o,, &c tho f,o;t;va sIava 1awD
OF the Republican party he says:
"The averment / make, Mr.. Clerk, is, that
the ideas, the principles, the politics, of the Re-
publican party are necessarily and inherently
and essentially hostile to the Constitution and
to the rights and interests of the South. The
arguments used assume an antagonism between
the sections, an irrepressibe conflict between
opposing and enduring forces"
We have given to Mr.. Curry all due praise
for a degree of candor and iberality which is
in striking contrast with that of his political as
sociates, but we must remind him that the fair
and direct way of stating the political po-
sition of party is, to quote from its recognised
platform. This he has not done, but, instead
of it, he has picked up detached sentences from
Vic oPCCShSS Gnu VI lhufiuudi 1eSpuU-
licans, as authoritative expositions of the party
creed. We admit that legitimate criticism war
rants the citation of respectable individual ut
terances as illustrations of the spirit and tenden-
cy of party but, first and foremost, candor
requires that the party should be permitted to
speak for ITSELF The highest and only con-
elusive authority for the principles of the Re-
publican party is the Philadelphia platform,
and Mr.. Curry was not true to the pledge he
gave of perfect fairness when he omitted to in
corporate that paper into his speech.
Having cited from various authorities what he
deems proof of this definition of Republicanism,
he makes the following declaration:
"Now, sir, however distAsteful it NAV be to
my friend from New York, Mr.. Clark, how
ever much it may revolt the public sentiment
or conscience of this country, am not ashamed
or afraid publicly to avow that the election of
William II. Seward, or Salmon P. Chase. or
any such representative of the Republican par
ty, upon sectional platform, ought to be re-
sisted to the disruption of every tie that binds
this Confederacy together"
The courtesy displayed by Mr.. Curry, added
TO the grace of his dction, has blinded his oppo-
nents, ss well as his friends, to his manifestly
partial array of facts, and illogical deductions
from them. His speech has been pronounced
philosophical =" and illogical" even by Re-
publicans, in spirit of generosity to generous
foe but if we undertake to dissect it, we shall
find it lamentably deficient in these qualities.
In the first place, Mr.. Curry assumes that the
AT, Slavery agitation and excitement in the
free States has been entirely spontaneous and
unpFovoked-he assumes that the slave interest