Randolph County journal. [volume] (Winchester, Randolph County, Ind.) 1855-1862, 1860-02-16

'h1ooolngs Oi aspiring dignity. down
to our days. when the rights Of man
have at last found bold and power
ful champion in a great and mighty
Republle;-where is the page that is
not spotted with blood and tears she'd
in that all absorbing struggle? where
a chapter which does not tell the tale
Of jubilant triumph or heart breaking
distress. as the scales OF freedom or
slavery went mp or downs (Loud APP
plause. But 10 day. in the mids, 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
carel And because he does not care.
he claims the confidence of his country
men and the highest honors of the Re-
public. Bec0Hse he does not care he
preiends to be the representative
statesman Of the agel
Sir, / always thought that he can
be no true statesman whose ideas aud
conceptions are not founded upon pro-
found moral convictions of right and
wrong. (Applause.) What. then.
shall we say of him. who boastingly
parades his Indifference as virtueg-
May we not drop the discussion about
his craftsmanship, and ask: What is
he worth as man? (Repeatei cbcers.)
les. he mistakes the motive power
which shapes the events of history. /
find that in the life of free nations
mere legal disquisitions never turned
the tide OF events. and mere constitu-
tional constructions never determined
the tendency of an age. The logic of
things goes its steady way, immovable
to eloquence and deaf to argumcnt.-
1t shapes anu changes laws and con-
stitutions according to Its immutable
rules. and those adverse to it will
prove no eilectual obstruction TO it's
onward march. In times of great
conflicts, the promptings and dictates
Of the hnman conscience are more
potent than all the inventive ingenuity
of the human brain. The conscience
of free people. when once fairly
ruling the action of the masses, will
never fail to make new laws, when
those existing arc contrary to its ten
dency. or it will put Its own construc-
ton upon those that are there. Your
disquisitions and plausibilities may be
used as weapons and stratagems in q
fencing match ofcontroversing parties.
but powerless as they are before tho
conscience of man. posterity viii re-
member them only as mere secondary
incidents ola battle Of great principles.
in which the strongest motive powers
of human nature were the true COM
batants.
There is the slavery question; not q
mere occasional quarrel between tho
two sections Of country. divided by a
geographical line; not mere contest
between two economical interests tor
the preponderance; not a mere wrangle
between two political parties for
power and spoils; bat the great strug-
gle between the human conscience and
a burning wrong. between advancing
civilization and retreating barbarism.
between two aniagonistic systems OF
social organization. Cheers. In
vain will our impotent mock giants
endeavor TO make the test question OF
our age turn on ridiculous logical
audible or paltry legal technicality:
(A2plause;) in vain will they invent
small lodges and call them great
principles" in vain will they attempt
to drag down the all absorbing con-
test to the level of a mere lot house
quarrel between two rival candidates
for a Presidential nomination. (Ap-
plause The wheel OF progressing
events will crush them to atoms as 1t
has crushed so many abnormities.
(cheers, and future generation will
perhaps read Oh sir. Douglass tomb
stone the inscription "ilere lies the
queer sort of statesman, who. when
the great battle Of slavery was fought,
pretended to say that he did not care
, whether slavery be voted up or voted
down." CHEERS.
+ But as long as the moral vitality OF
this nation J. not entirely exhausted.
Mr Donglas and men like him viii IN
vain endeayor TO reduce the people TO
that disgusting state OF moral indid-
; erence which he himselfis not ashamed
to boast Of solemnly protest that
the American people are not to be
measured by Mr.. Douglas low moral
standard. However degraded some of
our politicians may be. the progress of
the struggle will show that the pop.
nIar cnnscienco l. sfill alira ann that