Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-08-18
A strong Cup of Cones.

| '-N- VI ibo OOuhAGu COnoEi NHkioms n ~
young men Of the college, having heard VI
George A. Coffey, Esq, and supposing, as
he was resident of Philadelphia, that he
was Sound on the goose" invited him to
deliver On address at the time referred to.
George, being of an accommodating dispo.
Sitlon, occeded to the request, and gave the
Alumni of the college, and others who had
assembled, discourse, taking for bis text
Liberty as related to Opinion While the
speaker diated on the beauties Of Liberty
in general, all went along very smoothly,
but when he made application of bis sub
ject to our own times and country, he was
so oHtsPoken as to give mortal offence to
the pro-slavery professors and patrons of
this institute of learning, and some of these
dignitaries hissed the speaker, while others
left the house in the midst Of the speech.
1t aud the occasion wound up by the Trus-
tees OF the College adopting a resolution
virtually censuring Mr.. Cotfey, and request
ing the Alumni hereafter to have no ad-
dresses which reflect on Southern slavery |
We make one or two extracts from the sd-
dress which we think will not irritate the
nerves Of our readers:
"WiIl any one say that the theme is trite
That it is treated by every schoolboy's
crude composition, every aedgling versier,
and every fippant haranguer Indeed,
this theme is not novel, Liberty, after
self.preservation is the first necessity and
aspiration Of every human being. With.
out it there can be no spontaneous activity
OF body or mind, aud therefore no intelli
gence or virtue. 1t is as essential to hap
piness and progress as is the air to life.
Liberty is the atmosphere which ciyiliza-
too must breathe or else die As Shelley
sings, it is one with justice and love. Ac-
cordingly it attracts alike the vague long
ings of the savage and the profound specu-
lations of the philosopher. 1t is the dream
of Poetry, the ideal of Art, and the inspi-
ration of the Hero 1t is the great ques-
ton OF all ages. History, from Heradotus
to Bancroft, is but the story of its birth,
its struggles, and its victories The great
battles of the world-the Marothons, the
Pharsalias, the Hastngses, the Yorktowns,
the Waterloos, and the Solferinos, derive
their interest from their effects upon human
liberty, which hung over them oil, like the
the Gods of Homer over the plains of
Troy, trembling in the clondS of war.
This theme, therefore, forever commands
the heart, whether it rolls from the sublime
lips Of Demosthenes, or thunders in the vi
vid eloquence of Chatham. Mirabeau, or
Henry, or blaze and sparkle in the volnmi-
nous periods of Brougham, the thrilling
manifeStoes of Mazzini, or the entrancing
rhetoric of Summer. This theme has cleo
tri6ed the sLare, the serf, the peasant, the
yeoman, the commoner, the rebel, the revo-
lutioniSt, and the patriot. from the days
when kings fed from Rome and Brutus, and
SpartacuS mustered his self-emancipating
legions, till the latter days when the Declar-
alton Of Independence became the gospel
of the rights of man, and the social earth
quakes of 1889 and l94S tossed thrones
aud armies 10 the air, and the statesman
ship of Cavour and the sword of Garbal.
Edi are destroying the triple tyranny of the
Hapsburg, the Bourbon, and the Pope"
This was got along with without excit.
ing unusual erudition il; but the following
paragraphs were set down by the pro.sav-
cry part of the audience as fiat heresy and
wickednsss .r ..
"Our American institutions avow them.
selves as resting upon the consent of the
governed, and securing all the inalenable
rights of man. The cornerstone of our
republic is rock based upon these, and the
ocean washed gates of American Democra-
cy blaze with the words, forever new, All
men are created free and equal they are
endowed bv their Creator with certain in
alienable fights; among these are life, iber-
ty and the pursuit of happiness. To Sc.
cure these rights, governments are institut.
ed among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed In dis.
tinct recognition of these primordial axioms,
the Federal Constitution, in its majestic
preamble, announces that the people Of the
limited States Ordain it to secure the bes.
sings of liberty for themselves and their
posterity.
It must be confessed that we have not
consistently practced our own principles
The absolute rights Of men, such as person.
al security, life, liberty and property, are
enioyed by much the greater part Of our
neople. but not by all for about four mil.
lion innocent meu and women, African de.
scent, are forcibly deprived of all liberty
and property, and Of nearly oil personal
security. Political rights, that is, those
which attach to as as members of civil so
ciety, are or may be enjoyed by all white
men. but not by women, or men Of color
I wonder il our highly civilized posteTity,
two or three centuries hereafter, will ever
marvel that, in the days when Victoria was
Oueen and Liberia first 6ourished. We
should put our bootblackS and our mothers
on the same constitutional level, and persist
in political disabilities upon the sex of Flor
ence Nightingale and the complexion o.
Alexander Dumas. t. F..
The dungeons and racks which lately
wore out the lives of Nespolitau patriots
the lashes and blood-hounds which compe
the sullen labor of negro slaves, character
ize no heavier tyrannes thau the socia
forces which sometimes terrify, or imprison
or dragoon the thought and conscience o
an otherwise free people which searches
our trunks for Helpers books serutinize