Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-04-24
SPEECH OF
HON. j. l. ANDERSON,

House and the country, what we of the South I'M 4
derstand the legislative programme Of the Black /
Republican party to be, should they obtain the con-
troll of the Government; it is
l. To abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. +
2. To exclude slavery from all the Territories Of
the United States and thereby restrict it TO its pre-
sent limits.
g. To prohibit the slave trade between the States.
4 To repeal the fugitive slave act, or so modify
its provisions as to render it imperative.
s. To remodel the Supreme Court Of the United
States, If necessary for the accomplishment OF
these purpose.
That these unconstitutional and oppressive meas
viii be adopted should they obtain the control
Of all the departments Of the Government, con-
clude is evident, not only from tie declaration OF
their leaders, but from the principles which they
avow. The declared and fundamental axloms OF
their creed are: That all men, without distinction
of color, are entitled to the enjoyment OF liberty
that slavery is relic of barbarlsm that u Is a
crime against God and man that 1t Is founded IN
injustice and cruelty that it shall and must be
abolished" Entertaining these false ana lanatlcal
hereses appealing they do to the worst passions
and preIudces of the Northern people, driving them
onward, step by step, in their mad career must
confess that see bat little hope Tor the PeFeu9auoh
of this Union They ought to know, and do know,
shat the Southern people never can, and never will,
submit to the enforcement of their creed They
ought to know and do know, that the principles and
policy for which they are contendlng, WILL II re
duced to practne, disrupt every tie that exists be-
tween the two sections of the COnfederacy, and
rend asunder every hgament that binds this Union
together.
Now. Mr. Chairman, l desire the attention Of the
country to the principles declarations and purposes
of the leaders of the Black Republican party, as
expressed by themselves in order that may not be
charged with having misrepresented them:
Senator Wilson, Republican, of Massachusetts
said:
"Let us remember that more than three million
! "bOndsmen, grooming under nameless woes, demand
yVn Cha
1--WE labor for their deliverence.
81 tell you here tonight that the agitation of this
question of human slavery will continue while the
foot of slave presses the soil Of the American he
| public.
eve shall change the Supreme Court Of the Uni
'ted States and place men in that Court who be-
"lieYe with its pure and immaculate Chief Justice
John Jay, that our prayers VIII be lmplOus TO
Heaven, while We sustain andsupport human sia-
| very
Senator Sumner Republican, of Massachusetts,,
/ said:
"The good citizen. as he reads the requirements of
'ths act the Fugitive SlaVe is filled with horror.
Here the path Of duty is clear. am
abound to disobey this actr Sir, will
mot dishonor this home of the Pilgrims and Of the
| revolution by qdmitting-nay. cannot believe
that this bill will be executed here Charles sum
ner October 1850, IN Boston, and August 70, 1897 N
| the United States Senate.
Senator Sumner November, 1866
Not that IlOveEthe Union less but freedom more
ado now. in pleading this great cause, insist that
freedom. at all hazards, shall be preserved"
William II. Seward, Republican. IN the Senate OF
the United States said:
"The Constitution regulates our stewardship.
| "The Constitution devOtes the domain to union, TO
| Justice to defence, to welfare, to liberty. But
| there is a higher law than the Constitution, when
| regulates authority over the DOMAIN anu ue-
"vOtes it to the same purposes"
| Josiah Quincy Republican CT Boston:
| The obligations incumbent on the free States to
"deliver up fugitive slaves is that burden, and It
"must be obiterated from the Constitution at every
"hczdrd.a
Horace Mann, a Republican of Massachusetts,,
said
Il have only to add under a full sense of my re-
"spOnsibility to my country and my God, dehDer-
"ately say better disuniOn better civil or serYle
war better anything that God in his providence
"shall send, than an extension of the bounds OF
| slavery"
Mr. Burhngame a Republican Congressman,
| said
slavery Constitution, antislavery Bible, and an
| .'antislavery God"
| Burlingame again:
'sWhen we shall have elected a President, as we
| "will who will not be the President OF party,
''nor of section, but the tribune OF people
| land after we have eXtermnated few more mis-
| "erabe dnugh-faces from the North, then, II the
! aslave Senate will not give way. We will grind
1T between the upper and neither millstOnes OF our
| power"
| Abraham Lincoln. of Illinois, leading Republl-
can Of the West. said
| tTbeIieve the Government cannot endure perma-
nently half slave and half free. do not expect the
"house to fall. but do expect it will cease to be
"divded 1t will become all one thing or the other.
Either the opponents slavery will arrest the fur
ether spread Of it. and place it where the public
mnd shall rest in the belief that it Is IN the course
! "of ultimate extinction, or its advocates Will push
forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the
"States-od as well as new, North as well as
! South"
Gederal James Watson Webb. a Republican lead
| er said in the Philadelphia Convention
{" If we (meaning the AbOliuOaists fail there, (at
tbe ballot-bOx) what them We will drive it slave
| -rv) back sword in hand. and, help me God. be-
.lieving that to be right, am with them
Horace Greeley, a Republican:
| .. l have no doubt but the free and slave States
~ought to be separated. The Union is not worth
| supporting in connection with the South
General James Watson Webb, Il Republican
! editor:
"On the action of this (the Republican, Conven-
ton depends the fate Of the country; # the Repub-
lcans fail at the ballotbOX, we will be forced to
| drive back the savCocracy with fire and sword.
The New York Tribune while the Nebraska bill
! was before Congress:
Better that confusion should ensuc; better that
discord should reign in the national councils ;
better that Congress should break up IN Wild DIS
order: nav. better that the Capitol itself should
blaze bv the torch of the incendiary, or fall and
| bury all its inmates beneath its crumbling ruins,
than that this perfdy and wrong should be finally
| accomplished
! ventOn:
In case of the alternative being presented, Of the
! continuance of slavery or a dissolution of the
! Union am for dissolution, and ! don't care how
| quick it comes"
| These declarations of the leaders and organs of
that party conclusivey prove that is their deter
mined purpose never to cease their assaults upon
the institution of slavery until it is abolished eace-
ably if they can fOrcbly if they must or the Union
| dissolved.
| Sir, we are told by Republicans in tins House,
and the aiders abettOrs and symPathisers of their
party in my own district and State, that the lead
ers of the Democratic party and such politicians as
myself, outside the organization, are responsible
for the slavery agitation with all its fearful conse-
| suences.
! Ipropose for a moment to examine into this re-
sponsibility and ascertain, if can, where it rests.
Iremark sir, that the first serious agitation OF the
| rights of Shareholders commenced IN 1870, whenmy
| own State with a constitution Republican in FORM
| applied for admission into the Union. She WIS re
sisted bv the Senators and Representatives Of the
free States on account of her slavery liberation
| violent and fearful struggle ensued, winch was final
w settled bv the adoption Of the unjust and uncOn-
stitutional Missouri restriction, prohibiting slavery
| north of Sc deg 30 min. Mr.. Jefferson knowing
that the Southern people joint owners with the
Northern people in all the territories OF the Union,
and entitled to an equal participation III the ENJOY
ments thereof never uttered truer prediction than
when he said. in reference to the Missouri restrc
| ton, that
| - geographical line, cOninciding with marked
principle moral and political, once conceived and
hed up to the angry passions Of men, will never be
obliterated and every irritation will mark it
! deeper and deeper"
And in the same connection, he SAID:
81 regret that am now to die inthe belief thatthe
useless sacrifice of themselves, by the generation Of
"I776, to acquire selfgovernment and happiness to
.their country is to be thrown away by the unwlse
.and unworthy passions Of their sons; and my only
consolation is, that l live not to weep over it. If
"they would but dspassionately weigh the blessings
"they will throw away against an 9bgtract principle,
more likely to be effected by union than by seces-
| sion. they would pause before they would perpe-
trae this act of suicide themselves, and treason
! against the hopes Of the world.
! To quiet this agitation, and save the Union from
anarchy and civil war, the South patrIOtically
rendered her Just rghtssRnd yielded up to the people
of the North the occupation of the entire territory
north of 3G deg. 80 mIn The people of the North,
however were not satisfied with this humiliating
concession on the part of the people Of the slave
holding States Abolition societies were soon form
ed the abolition ofslqvery in the District of Column
bia was demanded throughout the North: abolition