Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1860-09-28

driven irresistibly to the conclusion that di-
versity, dissimilarty, variety, in all our local
and domestic institutions is the great safe
guard Of our liberties. / repeat
that uniformity in our institutions is neither
possible nor desirable"
y y r y
He insists that "where the doctrine of
uniformity is proclaimed, that all these
States must be FREQ or slave-that all labor
must be white or black" our liberties must
go by the board, therefore we
must have more variety. The variety of
manufacturing and commercial, mining and
agricultural products, is sadly insufficient.
He insists that there must be little variety
of freedom and slavery, Of white and black
labor; and that seems to be his favorite
his cardinal, fundamental sine
qua non variety; and not only have we no
right to establish uniform free labor by en-
croaching upon the rights of the States;
but quite as general thing the extinction
of his favorite Uariety, "woud be neither
possible nor desirable" He declares it to
be "a fatal heresy to proclaim that there
can or ought to be uniformity among the
different States of this Union" 1t would
then, according to the Judge, not be desira-
bic that free labor should prevail every
where, for that would create uniformity, and
uniformity is the death Of freedom.
And, now, mark that wonderful muddle
of nonsense in the head of that greatest of
living statesmen"-our liberties rest upon
o,r fo1arol evetoY,, nf r,oyorp,,on4. o,,r coJ
eral system of government rests upon the
variety of institutions; that variety of in
stitutons consists of there being slavery in
some of the States. IrSlavery disappeared
that variety would disappear; il that vari-
ETY. disappeared, our federal system Of gov
ernment would disappear; if our federal
system of government disappeared, the
safeguards of our liberties would be de-
stroyed-consequently, if slavery disap-
pears, liberty disappears also.
Again, if all the States were free there
would be uniformity; but uniformity in do
mestc and local affairs would be destructive
of personal liberty-that uniformity is pre-
vented by the existence of slavery, conse-
quently the existence of slavery prevents
the destruction of liberty; or liberty cannot
be preserved but by the preservation of
slavery.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE VARIETY DOCTRINE.
1t is little surprising, however, that
this great and luminous doctrine of "variety''
should have been so little known about the
time when our Government was organized
and the Constitution framed There were
two individuals then living, who enjoyed
some little reputation for craftsmanship,
one of whom said, 81 trust we shall have a
confederacy of free S,ates;" and the other
said, "Nothing is more certainly written in
the Book of Fate than that these people
(meaning the slaves) are to be free" And
they were called statesmen! What an i'm
mense progress we have made in these sew
enty years! They would be called simple
tons or traitors now; for they either knew
nothing of the great doctrine of variety
which was very stupid in them-or, if they
knew it, they plotted the destruction Of
popular freedom by advocating uniformity
which certainly was very reasonable
By the way, the name'of one was George
Washington, and the name of the other
Thomas Jefferson. You will be obliged to
confess that you were very much mistaken
in those two men. What pity Judge
Douglas did not live in those days. How
he would have knocked this great doctrine
of variety about theirears! How he would
have taught Washington what the def
milton of our federal system isl How he
would have told Jefferson what the great
safeguards of liberty are
But alas. such statesmen are sometime;
born not only out of season, but also out o
place. What pity Judge Douglas does
] not live in Switzerland, the oldest republic
now extant Those benighted people, th,
Swiss, have been for centuries indulging il
the foolish delusion that they were free
and that they had federal system of gov
ernment. Why, there is no slavery il
Switzerland-therei is not the necessary va
riety of institutions there. Their States
are all free States. There is uniformity
there. How can they have federal institu
tions with uniformity! How can there b.
liberty without variety! Impossible. Poo
innocent souls they think they are free, anC
have no slaves. Let the Judge go at onc'
on missionary expedition to liberste tn,
Swiss. He will thus have an opportunit,
to try that other great original idea of his
that 'any political creed must be radically
wrong which cannot be proclaimed witt
perfect safety everywhere" venture t
/. predict that every honest Swiss boot vii
lift itself, and respectfully kick tho gres
variety" Douglas from Alp to Alp.
Now look at the strange consequence
into which his "varety" doctrine ineyilabl
loads him. Tho necessity of preserving
slavery for the sake of liber,y-lhat is G
preserving the variety of instihtions--wa
the principal ground upon which he place
tho necessity of passing his Conspiracy bill
, The same man who tells US that SLAYER
must be preserved because its extinctio
would bring about uniformity, which in il
! turn would produce a consolidated despoti
} government-th same men advocates tn
passage of measure investing the govern
! ment with powers which put it upon th
course of consolidation; for without tn
grant of these powers, without that act G
: consolidation, slavery cannot be maintained
: Slavery according to him, must be pre-
, served by measure which is necessary t.
popular liberty, for if Slavery is not pro
. ....z... 4 Il.