Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-02-25
speech OF CassIus NJ. Clay.

The speech Of Cassius NJ Clay before
the Young Mems Republican Union in New
York, Feb 18th, was a glorious thing
1t covers the whole ground, and ought to
be scattered all over our State, and put in
the hands of every man, Democrat, Shamo-
crat, or otherwise, who has a heart to feel,
a head to understand, and vote to give.
Said he in closing:
"We preach 10 new doctrine, we invoke
no new God; but, standing by the old doc
trine of '76, upon which our fathers fought
and died, we say with Crittenden that that
ground which is good TO stand upon, is
good ground to fall upon We invoke the
people of the North and the South to staud
by the Constitution of the United States,
and vindicate it beyond the possibility of a
doubt. Who are the men that have avow-
ed the intention to dissolve the Union?-
Look at the record. Not single County
meeting, nor District Convention, nor State
Assembly, nor National Convention of the
Republican party has ever declared that in
any emergency, will they dissolve the Tn.
ion. No sirs: we say all the time that we
submit to Democratic rule, while the slave
holders rule Us, and we submit because we
know Of no other policy, no other alterna-
tive, except it be force, and when that is
used all law is silent and the Government
becomes despotism; whenever you resort
to violence you have an anarchy as has
Mexico, which is continually at war be-
cause it does not stand by any Constitution
OF law. All our pledges and antecedents
prove that We are bound to be loyal to the
Union Of these States; and therefore say
we can safely claim your sufIrages, not Ia.
king us by our ayowals but taking us by
our acts. If we have submitted for eighty
years, we are willing to submit for eighty
years more, unless we can persuade you to
take hold of those golden privileges which
we hold to be right.
In vain has Greek, Roman, Goth, Moor,
and Vandal broken over the mountain and
water barriers of European lands. Soon
the natural bounds of nations re-assert them.
selves; and the people subside into their
original races and tongues Here all the
rivers and mountains run north and south,
and proclaim the eternal unity of this Con.
tlnent. The frozen regions where fell the
fated Franklin sweep nnbroken with bear
ers to the sunlit shores Of the Mexican gulf.
The same race this night speaks one Ian
guage on the Atlantic and Pacific costs
For good or evil our destiny is one.
Men of New York, have stood here
and by this cause through all the days Of
my youth-all the days of my manhood
crushing out the aspirations of ambition,
which In good purpose is a God-given in
sPlrauon, which lifts US above the beasts
which eat, drink, aud are merry. and 70.
morrow die! injured by the black mar
desplsed and ignored by the white man
faithful to one aspiration, the liberties of
mankind andAthe Union Of these States :
What now to me are the Fose-colors of life :
The frosts which never melt settle uDon NV
locks God give me strength amid / know
not what terrors for the body and the soul
TO stand there to my dying day! Sheltered
under the same old flag of my fathers of,
1.-The constitution Of S9- each stripe with
the ages paling into Frightening galaxy
of stars In the language of Daniel Web.
ster--inscribed with no such miserable in.
terrogatory-'What is all this worthp-
Nor those other words Of delasion, OF oily.
Slavery aud Union, nor yet Slavery frst
aud Union afterwards; far less Slavery
With o. without the Union' but bearing
bis own glorious aud immortal sentiments
Tor the which and with the which, IN dlisI
p'ety 1 walk backward and covered % Bis
political nakedness, Liberty and Union,
now aud forever, one aud inseperable!'0