Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1860-12-14
speech of Hon. Caleb Cushing on the
Crisis.
Sincerely your friend.

The Hon. Caleb Cushing. at the re-
quest Of several hundred citizens of New
buryport, Mass, delivered an able adj
dress on Monday evening, the Sd instant,
on the present national crisis. We have
not space for his heightened argument,
but give enough to show the comprehen-
siyeness and reach of its general idea,
and thorough soundncss Of view. After
passing a beautiful, full and approaching
tribute to the Union, showing its great
blessings to the several States, morally
as well as materially, in the varied pro-
ducts Of each their free and unrestricted
interchange, and the advantages for the
pursuit of industry und happiness Mr..
Gushing continued:
Such was the Union which our fathers
establshed-a Union founded on the
cornerstone idea of the original indepen-
dence and constitutional co-equality of all
the States--a Union for the purpose Of
assuring each and all against foreign ag-
erosion, but not less to assure all and
each in complete possession and full en-
joyment Of its own domestic rights, so
as to retain laws Of religious conformity
and compulsioD, like Massachusetts,, or
to repeal them, like Virginia; SO as to
legalize entail Of land, like Massachusetts,,
or to unlegalizc it like Virginia so as
to maintain self labor like Virginia, or
to exclude it like Massachusetts, That
was the fundamental idea Of the fathers
Without having that idea originally, they
never could have created a Union-with-
out adherng TO that idea SO long az they
lived, they never could have transmitted
the Union to the sons.
1t was left to degenerate sons Of theirs
to begin to undo that great work, which
they had not wisdom to comprehend or
virtue to maintain in its pristine integri-
ty aud strength. 1t was not until TWEEN
ty years after the establishment Of the
constitution, when the last Of the reyo-
lutionary Presidents was in the scat Of
federal power, that men Of the northern
States began to strike blows at the equali-
ty Of the States, by insisting on the put
ting ofthc institutions Of southern States
under the ban Of the Union, ia excluding
them from the common federal territory
Treading in the same path, the next
step Of abandonment or peryersion Of the
constitution by the sons was for the
Northern States TO assume TO conliscate
the property and other domestic rights of
citizens Of the South sojourning or in
transit at the North, the possession Of
which, during such sojourn or transit, is
guaranteed to them by the same explicit
provision Of the constitution which guar
antics to the citizens Of the North the
privilege TO 90 with their property and
other domestic rights in transit or sojourn
into any Southern State.
Then the sons proceeded TO pass acts
in the Northern States to nullify or i'm
pedo the rightof reclamation of fugitivcs
from service which the constitution had
explicitly stipulated for, and which con-
right the fathers had confirmed
by an appropriate act Of Congress.
Next degenerate sons, in contempt Of
the idea and work Of their fathers, pro-
ceeded TO organize in the Northern States a
system Of agitation and propagandism by /
means Of societies, Incorporated and
others, for the purpose Of preaching at