Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-03-17

h'hAhehAhNhs hullb oldNtIlt tt
forced by an irresponsible judicial tribunal
Is the completest possible development O
Mr.. President, did ever the annals of any
government show a more rapid or more
complete departure from the wisdom and
Vlrture OF its founders ? Did ever the Gov
ernment of great empire, founded on the
/ rights OF human labor, slide away so fast
| ana SO lar, and moor itself so tenaciously
on the basis of capital and that capital in
vested in laboring men ? Did ever free
representative Legislature invested with
powers SO great and with the guardianship
oil rights SO important of trusts so sacred.
oil interests so precious, and of hopes at
once so noble aud so comprehensive, sur
render and renounce them all so unneces-
sarly, so unwisely, so fatally, and so in
glorlously ? If it be true, as every instinct
OF our nature, and every precept of politi-
cal experience teaches us, that
" III fares the land to hastenng ills urev.
Where wealth accumulates, and men decav."
then where in Ireland, in Italy. in Poland.
or in Hungary, has any ruler prepared for
generous and conGdng people disappont-
ments, disasters, and calamties equal to
those which the Government of the United
States holds now suspended over so large
portion OF the continent of North America
Citizens of the United States, in the
spirit of this policy, subverted the free Re
public Of Nicaragua, and opened it to slu-
very and the African slave trade, and held
it in that condition waiting annexation to
the United States, until its sovereignty was
restored by combination of sister Repub-
lies exposed to the same danger, and appre-
henslve of similar subversion. Other citi.
zens re-opened the foreign slave trade in
violation OF our laws and treaties and, af-
ter suspension Of that shameful traffic for
nifty years. savage Africans have been once
more landed on our shores and distributed,
unreclamed aud with impunity, among our
plantations.
For this policy so far as the Government
has sanctioned it, the Democratic party
avows itself responsible Everywhere com
plant against it is denounced, aud its op-
ponents prescribed When Kansas was
writhing under the woun Is cf incipient,
servile war, because of her resistance, the
Democratic press deridingly said, "let her
bleed" Official integrity has been the
cause for rebuke and punishment when it
resisted frauds designed to promote the ex-
tension of slavery. Throughout the whole
Republic there is not one known dssenter
from that policy remaining in place, if with
in the reach of the executive arm. Nor
over the face of the whole world is there
to be found one representative of our coun-
try who is not an apologist of the extension
of slavery.
1t is in America that these things have
happened. In the nineteenth century, the
era Of the worlds greatest progress, and
while all nations but ourselves have been
either abridgng or altogether suppressing
commerce in men at the very moment
when the Russian serf is emancipated, and
the Georgian captive, the Neubian prisoner,
and the Abyssinian savage are lifted up to
freedom by the successor of Mohammed.
The world, prepOssessed in our behalf by
our early devotion to the rights of human
nature, as no nation ever before engaged its
respect and sympathies, asks, in wonder and
what all this Generalization
means? 1t has an excuse better than the
world can imagine, better than we are gen.
orally conscious Of ourselves, virtuous ex-
cuse. We have loved not freedom so much
less, but the Union of our country so much
more. We have been made to believe, from
time to time, that, in a crisis, both of these
precious institutions could not be saved to-
gether, and therefore we have, from time
10 time, surrendered safeguards of freedom
TO propitiate the loyalty of capital, and stay
is hands from doing violence to the Union.
The true state of the case, however, ought
not to be mystery to ourselves Pre-
science, indeed, is rot given TO statesmen
but we are without excuse when we fail 10
lpprehend the logic of current events
Let parties, or the Government, choose or
do what they may, the people of the U.
States do not prefer wealth to liberty, cap-
tai to labor, African slaves to white free
men, in the national territories and in future
states That question has never been dis.
-inctly recognized or acted on by them
The Republican party embodieS the popular
protest and reaction against policy which
mas been fastened upon the nation by sur
prise, and which its reason and conscience,
,oncurring with the reason and conscience
Of maukiud, condemn.
The choice of the nation is now between
the Democratic party and the Republican
party. Its principles and policy are, there
fore, justly and even necessarily examined
know Of only one policy which it has
adopted or avowed, namely: the saving of
he Territories of the United States, if pos
,ible, by constitutional and lawful means,
rom being homes for slavery and polygamy.
Who, that considers where this nation ex-
SITS, of what races it is composed, in what
age of the world it acts its part on the pub
c stage, and what are its predominant in
ittutions, customs, habits, and sentiments,
doubts that the Republican party can and
win, if unwaveringly faithful to that policy,
and just and loyal in all beside, carry it
INTO triumphal success 7 To doubt is to be
whether civilization can improve
or Christianity save mankind.
may, perhaps, infer from the necessity
If the case, that it will, in all courts and
places, stand by the freedom of speech and
'f the press, and the constitutional rights
'f freemen everywhere; that it will favor
he speedy improvement of the public dom
lin by homestead laws, and will encourage
mining, manufacture and internal commerce