The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1860-02-16

1887 because that stern fact is conclu-
sive historical argument against it;
Jesuitical piece of equivocaticn and
double dealing unable to stand before
the criticism of a logical mind, because
it is a mixture of glaring contradictions :;
unable to stop The AGAR Of principles and in
terests, because tis at par scith ITSELF. Ap-
plause. Ii is true, its principl champion
worked hard to cover witAef4iking bois-
terousness the moral cowaSdice from
which it sprang, but in vain. He mis-
takes the motive power which shapes the
actions of free nations. Having no moral
convictions of his own to stand upon, he
could never address himself to the moral
sense of the people. Sensation. Having
no moral convictions of his own This
is grave charge, but know what say.
l respect true convictions wherever find
them. Among the fre-eaters the South
there are men who speak of the moral
basis of slavery, and believe in it; who
speak ofthe blessings of servitude, and
believe in it who assert that slavery is
right, and believe in it. Atrociou5 as
their errors may be, and deeply as l de-
plore them, yet l respect their convic-
tions as soon as | find them out. But
look into the record of the champion of
popular sovereignty" scan it from
syllable to syllable, and then tell me, you
Douglasites of the South, do you find one
word there indicating moral convic-
ion that slavery is right? And you
Douglasites OF the North, who are in the
habit of telling US that you are the true
anti-slavery men. and that popular sover-
eighty will surely work the overthrow of
the institution, did your master ever ut
ter a similar sentiment? Do you find in
his record one word of sympathy with
the down trodden and degraded? :? One
spark of the humane philosophy of our
age /? One syllable in vindication OF the
outraged dignity of human nature? F? One
word which might indicate moral con-
viction that slavery is ,0ronge Not one
But one thing he does tell YOU II do
not care achether slayery is voted up or
ao,cn." There is then human heat
that does not care Sir, look over this
broad land, where the struggle has ragged
for years and years; and across the two
oceans, around the globe, TO the point
where the far West meets the far East
over the teeming countries where the cra-
die of mankind stood and over the
workshops of civilization in Europe, and
over those mysterious regions under the
tropical sun, which have not emerged
yet from the night of barbarism 10 the
daylight of civilized life,-and then tell
me, how many hearts do you find that
do not tremble with moral anguish or
exultant Joy as the scales of human free
dom or human bondage go up or down ?
Look over the history of the world, from
the time when infant mankind felt in its
heart the first throbbings ofaspiring Dig
nifty, down to our DAYS when the rights
of man have at last found a bold and
powerful champion in great and mighty
republic, where is the page that is not
spotted with blood and tears she'd in that
all absorbing struggle where chapter
which does not tell the tale of jubilant
triumph or heart breaking distress, as
the scales Of freedom or slavery went up
or down ? Loud applause. But day,
in the midst of the nineteenth century,
in republic whose programme was laid
down in the Declaration of Independence,
there comes man to you. and tells you.
with cynical GOODNESS, that he does not
care T! And because he does not care. be
claims the confidence of his countrymen
and the highest honors of the republic !!
Because he does not care, he pretends to
be the representative statesman of this
age!
Sir, always thought that he can be
no true statesman whose ideas and con-
ceptions are not faunded upon profound
moral convictions of right and wrong.
Applause. What. then, shall we say of
him who boastingly parades his indiffer-
ence as virtue May we not drop the dis
cussion about his craftsmanship and ask,
What is he worth as a man? Repeated
cheers. Yes, he mistakes the motive
power which shapes the events of histo-
tory find that in the life of free na-
tons mere legal disquisitions never turn
ed the tide of events, and mere eonsti-
tutional constructions never determined
the tendency of an age. The logic of
things goes its steady way, immovable to
eloquence and deaf to argument. Ii
shapes and changes laws and constitu-
tons according to its immutable rules,
and those adverse to it will prove no ef-
fectual obstruction to its onward MAJ ch
In times of great conflicts, the promptings
and dictates Of the human conscience are
more potent than all the inventive inge-
nuity of the human brain. The con-
eienee of free people, when once fairly
ruling the action ofthe masses, will never
fail 10 make new laws, when those exist
ing are contrary TO its tendency, or 1t
will put its own construction upon those
that are there. Your disquisilions and
plausibilities may be used as weapons
and stratagems in fencing match
of controyersing parties, but power
less as they are before the conscience of
man, posterity will remember them only
as mere secondary incidents ola battle of
great principles. in which the. strongest
motive powers of human nature were