Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-07-13
CHARLES SUMMERS SPEECH.
DELIvERED WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULl
ATTHE COOPER INSTITUTE. NEW YoRI

OGA-lA ENID EDNECD EN ENlNO, 0lLh IL
AT THE COOPER INSTITUTE NEW YORK.
The announcement that Hon. Charles Sum
ner would speak at the Cooper Institute, drew
out an immense audience, although the com
mittee of arrangements required an entrance
fee of twenty five cents. This was done as
matter of good policy, and one result was
large attendance of ladies' The New York
Herald says :-"He was received with an out.
burst of excited enthusiasm which defies all
description. The applause with which he was
greeted was unanimous and intense. Cheer
after cheer arose, loud and vociferous; men
stood up and waved their handkerchefs and
their hats till scarcely anything else could be
seen; the ladies capped their hands, and
shouts of applause were heard from every part
of the ROOM" The more striking passages of
Mr., Summers speech were as follows =
MIR. SUMMERS SPEECH.
FELLOW CITIZENS OF New YORK: Of all
men in our history, there are two whose in
tiuence at this moment is most PECULIAR.
Though dead, they yet live, speak and act in
the conflict OF principles, which divide the
country-standing face to face like two we'll
was from South Carolina and the other was
from Massachusetts, you will see at once that
l mean John e. Calhoun and John Quincy
Adams.
Statesmen both of long career, of marked
ability, and of unblemished integrity-acting
together at first-sitting in the same cabinet
which they quitted-one to become vice.presi-
dent and the other president, then for the
remainder of their DAYS battling in congress
and dying there-each was leader i'll life,
but each has become in death grander lead
er still
Mr.. Calhoun possessed an intellect of much
originality and bodness, and, though
wanting in the culture of scholar, made
himself felt in council and in debate. To ma
! tive powers unlike, but not interior, MIR.
Adams added the wellripened fruits OF long
| experience in foreign lands, and OF studies
more varied and complete than those of any
public man in our history beside an indomi-
table will, and that spirit of freedom which
inspired his father when in the Continental
Congress he so eloquently maintained the
Declaration of Independence making himself
its colossus on that floor
Sitting together in the cabinet of Mr.. Mon
roe, they concurred in sanctioning the pronib
iton of slavery in the Missouri territory as
constitutional, and SO advised the president.
but here the divergence probably began
though for long time it was not made mani
fest. The diary of Mr.. Adams shows that at
that early day, when slavery had been little
discussed, he saw its enormity with instructive
quickneSs, and described it with corresponding
force The record is less full with regard to
Mr.. Calhoun; but when in later life they APP
peared, one in The senate and the other in the
house of representatives, each openly assumed
the position by which he will be known in his
tory-one as the leader in all the professions
Of slavery and of slave masters and the other
as the champion of freedom.
Mr.. Calhoun regarded slavery as a perma-
nent institution Mr.. Adams regarded it as
transiory. Mr.. Calhoun Wanted it as form
of civilization Mr.. Adams scorned it as an
unquestionable barbarsm Mr.. Calhoun did
not hesitate to call it the most stable basis for
free government; Mr.. Adams vehementy de-
nounced it as curse, full OF weakness and
mockery, and doubly offensive in boosted re-
public. Mr.. Calhoun, not content with thus
exaltlng slavery, proceeded to denounce the
early opinions of Washington and Jefferson as
folly and delusion," to assail the selfevident
truths of the Declaration OF Independence as
''absurd," and then to proclaim that human
beings are properly under the constitution, and
as such, may be transported into the territories
and there held in slavery while Mr.. Adams
added to the glory of his long and diversified
for his fame than having been president-up.
holding the great rights of petition and speech;
vindicating the self evident truths of the Dec
laration OF Independence; exposing the hate
full character OF slavery; insisting upon its
prohibition in the territories denying the as
serted property in man; and especially and
often exhibiting the unjust power in the ma
tional government, usurped by what he called
'the little cluster" of slavemasters, whose yoke
was to him intolerabie.
Such, most briefly told, were the antagonist
opinion of these two chiefs. Never was great
conflict destined to involve great country
more distinctly toreshadowed. All that the
republican party now opposes may be found in
| John G. Calhoun. All that the republican
| party now maintains may be found in John
! Quincy Adams. Choose We, fellow citizens
between the two. The rule of 'Principles
and not men, is hardly applicable to man
whose life now bears the sacred seal of death,
and whose name is the synonym of principle ;
yet l do not hesitate to say that our cause is
best appreciated i'll its precise objects and aims
Proud as we may be to tread where John
Quincy Adams leads the way, there is a guide
OF more commanding authority found in the
eternal laws of right, and the concurring man
dates of the constitution ITSELF when properly
interpreted, which teaches the duties of a GOOD
citizen. Such is the guide of the republican
party, which, l say fearlessly where most
known, will be most trusted, and which when
understood in its origin, will be seen to be no
accidental or fugitive organization, merely for
an election, but an irresistible necessity, which
i'll the nature of things, must be as permanent
as the pretensions, moral and political, which
it seeks to constrain and counterfeit
THE ISSUES OF THE PRESENT CAMPAIGN.
But though not himself a candidate for Of
flee, his peculiar supporters, animated by his
spirit, linked with him in all his msrule, are
embodied as party, and ask your votes,
Simply to resist this combination, and to save
the republic from its degrading influence,
would justify the formation of the republican
party; and doubt not there are many who
will be content to unite with us on this ground
alone, anxious to put the national government
once again in pure hands. 70 all such, wei.
come!
While this consummation necessarily enters
INTO the present purposes of the republican
party while we naturally begin by insisting
upon purity In the government, and make this
one OF our urgent demands, it is obvious that
the quickening impulse of party is to be found
in other purposes, which cannot pass away in
a single election. The republican party seeks
to overthrow the slave oligarchy in the ma
tonal government, and especially at this mo.
ment to stay its aggressons in the territories
which, through a corrupt Interpretation of the
constitution it threatens to barbarize with
slavery But all who seek purity in the ma
tional government must unite in this purpose
for only by the overthrow of this corrupt oil,
garchy, which, beginning in the denial of all
human rights, necessarily shows itself in bar.
barlsm and corruption of all kinds, can bet
ter order of things prevail. 1t is ont of slave.
ry that all our grieis proceed; nor can the
corrupuons OF the present administration be
fully comprehended without considering the