Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1860-10-05

work its way effectually. So on the othe
hand as, here where you are, no man cal
monopolize the land which another man il
obliged to cultivate, much less monopolize tn,
labor by which the lands on Which your fields
are cultivated; you are entirely and absolute
ly established and grounded on Democrti,
principles. But you all know, that has no
always been the history of our whole coun
try, and, at times, was not the condition O
any portion of it. Some two hundred wear.
ago when laborers were scarce, and the fielt
to be cultivated was large, private citizens O.
the Atlantic States, driven as they said by
the cupidity of the British Government, in
troduced the labor of slaves into the Ameri
can colonies, and then established the aristoc.
racy of land and labor. The system prevail
ed nearly the whole Atlantic States. IF il
had not been interrupted it would have per.
vaded the continent of America; and instead
OF what you see, and Of what you are a part
and of what you do,--instead of emigration
from Eastern States into the prairies of the
West, and instead of emigrating from Europe
an over the United States, you would have
had in the Northwest this day the Boston
and New York merchant importing laborers
instead of freemen into the sea ports and dis
persing them over the entire valley of the
Mississippi. That would have been the con.
dition of the civilization on this continent
1t has been fortunate for you, and fortunate
for us, that such dissertation of the magni.
fcent scene, provided by nature for the i'm
provement OF human society and for the in
crease OF human happiness, has been arrested
so soon; and you will see how felcious it is
when, for one moment, you compare the con-
dltlon OF Wisconsin, and Of Maine, Iowa, lii
nois, and Indiana, and all the free States OF
the Union, with the island of the West Indies.
colonlzed Just at the same time that the At
lantic States were colonized, and with the
condition of South America, whole and en-
tire new continent Astounding in the most
luxuriant vegetation and with the greatest
resources OF mineral wealth, absolutely re-
duced to condition of perpetual civil war,
and ever renewed ruinous desolation. The
salvation of North America from all those
disasters that have befallen the southern por-
ton OF the continent is the result of bold and
firm procedure on the part of your ancestors
and mine, less than hundred years ago.
The Government of the United States was
established in an suspicious moment. The
world had become aroused to the injustice as
well as to the ineXpediency Of the system of
slavery and the people of the United States,
rising up to dignity of the destiny that was
before them, determined to prevent the fur
Their extension, as far and as fast as possible,
to secure the abolition Of African slavery
1t was under the influence of high, right
eous, noble, humane excitement like that.
that even the State of Virginia. itself slave
State like the State of New York, determined
that, so far as her power and her will could
command the future, slavery should cease
forever; first by abolishing the African slave
trade, which would ultimately, bring about,
the cessation of domestic slavery; and, in the
second place, by declaring that her consent
to the cession of territory northwest of the
Ohio, OF which you occupy so beautiful part
was given with the express condition that it
should never be the home of slavery or invol-
untary servitude. [Applause.]
But, fellow citizens, l need not remind you
that this, like most other efforts of human
society to do good and to advance the welfare
of mankind, had its painful and unfortunate
reaction. Hardly twenty years had elapsed
after the passage of those noble acts for the
foundation Of liberty on the North American
continent, before there came over the nation
a tide of decentralization, the result of which,
coming on us with such fearful rapidly, sur
pass almost our power to describe or to suf-
ticiently deplore.
What have we seen since this was done ?
We have seen the people of the United States,
for it is OF no use to cast responsibility on
parties, or administrations, or statesmen
extend slavery all around the coast of the
Gulf of Mexico. We have seen them take
Texas into the Union and agree that she
should come in as Slave State, and have
the right to multiply herself into four more
Slave States. We have seen California and
New Mexico conquered by the people of the
United States, with the deliberate consent, if
not purpose, that Slavery should be extended
from the Mississippi river to the Pacific Ocean.
You have seen the Constitution of the United
States perverted by the consent of the people
until that Constitution, instead of being law
of freedom and citadel of human rights, has
come to be pronounced by the affected judy
ment and willing consent of the highest tri-
bunal of the United States, yet enjoying the
confidence and support of the people, to be a
tower and bulwark of human slavery, of At
rican bondage; and you have had now an
by the Government of the United
States, which you yourselves brought into
power, that wherever the Constitution of the
United States goes, it carries, not freedom
with the eagles of conquest, but hateful chains
and bondage. Applause If the principle
which you have thus permitted to be estab-
lished is true, then there is not an arsenal
within the United States, not military or
naval school Of the Federal Government, not
a Federal Jail, not dock yard, and not ship
that traverses the ocean, bearing the Ameri-
can flag in any part of the globe, where the
law, the normal law, the law by which men
are held and tried and judged, is not law
by which every man whose ancestor was a
slave is slave, and by which property in
slaves, not freedom Of man, is the normal
of society under the Federal system
of government. can only ask you to con-
slider for a moment how near you have come
to losing everything which you enjoy of this
great interest of freedom. The battle culmi-
mated at last on the fields of Kansas. How
severe and how dreadful battle that has
been, you all know. 1t was great and des-
perate effort of the aristocracy Of capital in
labor, to carry their system practically with
all its evils to the shore of the Gulf of Mexico
and to cut off the Atlantic States from all
with the sister States on the
Pacific, and so to extend slavery from the
center, both ways, restoring it throughout
the whole country. You will say this was
very visionary attempt; but it was far from