The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1860-03-13

tative Fafllament, Diet, Congress, or Leg
islature, is the one chief paramount, es.
sental, and indispensable institution in
Republic. Even liberty, guaranteed by
organic law, yet If it be held by other ten
ure than the guardian care of such re.
preventative popular assembly, is but pre-
carously II sintained, while slavery, en-
forced by an irresponsible judicial lribu nal,
is the completest possible development Of
desrotism.
Mr.. President, did ever the annals Of
any Government show moro rapil or
more complete departure from the wisdom
aud yirtuo of its foundersl Did ever the
Government of a great empire, founded on
the rights of human labor, slide away go
fast anl 50 far, ard moor itself 80 tenacious
ly on tic basis of capital, and that capital
invested in laboring men3 Did ever a
FREQ representative Legislature, invested
with powers so great and with tho guar
dianship Of rights SO important, Of trasls 50
sacred, Of interests so precious, and Of
hopes at once 40 noble and 50 comprahcn.
siye, surrender and ronounco their all 30
unnec assarialy, so unwiscly, SO fatally, and
so inglorousy? Ii it be true, aa every in
stinct Of our rature, and every precept of
political experience teaches US, that
"Ill fares the land, TO Fastening ills prey
Where wealth accumrlatcs and men decay"
then where in ireland, in Italy, in Poland,
or in Hungary, has any ruler prepared f)r
u generous and confding people disaTpoint-
r1ents, disasters, and calamtlos equal to
those which the Government of the Uni,
ted States holds now scspndcd over so
large pcrtionsso the continent cf North
Americas
Citizens of the United states, in tho
spirit of this policy, subverted the free Re-
public Of Nicaragua, and opend it to slave
ry and the African slave trade, and held it
in that condition waiting annexation to the
United states, untii It's Sovereignty was
restored by combination of sister Republics
exposed to the same dagger, and apprc
hensivc of similar subservsion. Other citi.
zens reopcncd the foreign Slave trade in
violation of our laws and treaties; and, after
suspension of that shameful traffic for
fifty years, savage Africans have been once
moro landed on our shores aud distributed,
rnreclaimed AMI with impunity, among
our plantations.
For this policy, so far as this Govern.
ment has sanctioned it, the Democratic
party wows itself responsible Every
where complaint against it is denounced,
and its opponents prescribed. Wncn
Kansas WAS whitening under the wounds Of
incipient, seville war, because Of her rcsis
tanco, the Democratic press dcridingly
said, "let her b.ecd." Official integrity
has been cause fer rebuke and punishment,
when it resisted fraud designed to promote
the extension of slavery. Throughout
the whole Republic there is not one
known d:,>cntcr from that policy remaining
in place. it within reach OF the Executive
arm. Nor over the face OF the whole
world is there to b. found one representa-.
tive Of our country who is Mt an APP logjst
Of the extension of slavery.
1t is in America that these things have
happened. In tho nineteenth century.
the era Of the worlds greatest progress, and
while al! nations but ourselves have been
either abridging or altogether suppressing
commerce in mon; at the very moment
when the Russian serf is emoncipated, and
the Georgion captive, and the Nubian pris.
onor, AMI the Abyssinian savage, are lifted
up to freedom by successor of Mohammel
The world, preposcssed in our behalf 10y
our early devotion to the rights Of human
nature, as no nation ever before engaged
its respect and mpalhies, asks, in wonder
and amazement, what all this dcuoral.
zatiod means? 1t has an excuse better
than the world can imagine, better than
we are generally conscious of ourselves, a
wrtlous excuse. We have loved not free.
dom 50 much less bat tho Union Of our
country so much mora. We have been
made to bolicrI, from timo to time, that,
in = crisis, bot! of these precious insti,u.
tions could not bc saved together, and
therefore We have, from time to time, sur
rendered safeguards Of freedom to propi
tiate the loyalty Of cvpital, and stay its
hands from doing violence to tho Tn.
ion. The true state Of the casc, however,
ought not II be a mysterv tc ourselves
prcscicncc, indeed, i, no' given to states.
men but We agc without excuse when we
fail to apPrchend the logic Of current events.
Let parties, or tho GoycunEaut, choose to
do what they may, the pecpic Of the Uni,
ted states DO not prefer the wealth CT the
few to the liberty Of the many, capital to
labor, African slaves 10 white frccmon, in
tho National territories and in future
states. That question has never been dis
tinctiy recognized or ac;el on by them.-
The Republican party cmbodies the popu
lar protest aud reaction against n policy
which has been fastened upon tho nation
by surprise, and which its reason and con
science, concuuiug with the reason and
conscience of mankind condemn.
The choice of the nation is now between
tile Democratic party and the Republican
party. It's principles and policy are, there
fore, Justly AMI even necessarily examined.
] know Of only one policy which it has
adopted or avowol. namely: the Saciag Of
tie Territories Oft United States, II
possible, By constitutional and lawfm
means. from being homes Of Slavery and
Polygamy. Who can consider where this
nation exists of wi at races it is composed, =,
in what age Of the world il acts its part on
the public stage, and what are its predom
inaut institutions, custol S, habits, and
sentiments, doubts that the Republican
party eau and will, Gunwaveringly faithful
to that policy, aud just aud loyal to all
l., int. ,,yI, al