Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1861-12-20
To R. G. LrsMoS, Esq, and Others.

Mr.. President and Gentlemen
In response to an invitation from
number of my fellow-citizens appear
before you tonight to present as briefly
as / can my view of the rebellion, its
causes and consequences. And here let
me say that the remarks which pro-
pose to make will be in the main but
recitation of historical facts. Facts are
stubborn things, and l prefer to use
them in examining the question upon
which l am to speak tonight, rather
than resort to defamation. / do it as a
duty, and to demonstrate to you beyond
all dispute that the cause for which we
are fighting is the cause of Justice, and
Union, and Constitutional Liberty. If
could not do this l would ask no man
to join the army, for could not ask a
man to enter the army to fight for in
justice and oppression. | need hardly
say to you that we are in the midst of
rebellion unlike any which in our histo-
ry has preceded it, or indeed in the his
tory of the world. There have been
many rebellions and revolutions since the
establishment of civilized governments,
but this is the first attempted revolution
having for its avowed object the extern
sion and perpetuity of human slavery
All rebellions which have preceded this
have been professedly to secure the
rights and liberties of the people,
Therefore of all rebellions this is the
most causeless and criminal which the
history of the world records.
The seeds of this rebellion were first
sown so long ago as the year 1920, when
q Dutch ship entered the mouth of
James River in the then infant of Vir-
ginia, and committed the infamous crime
of selling twenty black men as slaves
The British Government fostered and
protected the seed then sown, guarded
and protected it by law and added year
ly to it more than hundred fold by
fresh importations up to the date of the
establishment of our Independence
The leading men of the revolution saw
and, like true men, acknowledged the
inhumanity, the injustice and the crime
of slavery. Jefferson said, when speak
ing of this question, that che trembled
for his country when he remembered
that God was just" and in the original
draft ofthe Declaration of Independence
he charged as one of the grievances OF
which we justly claimed at the hands of
the mother country that of slavery upon
u.s. These are his priceless words:
''He has waged cruel war against
human nature ITSELF violating the most
sacred rights of life and liberty in the
persons of distant people, who never
offended him, captivating and carrying
them into slavery in another hemisphere,
or to incur miserable death in trans
portation thither. This piratical war
fare, the opprobium of infidel powers, is
the warfare of the Christian King of
Great Britain, determined to keep open
a market where men shall be bought
and sold. He has prostituted his mega
tive by suppressing every legislative at
tempt to prohibit or restrain the execra-
BILE commerce, and that his assemblage
of horrors might want no fact of distin-
guished dye, he is now exciting these
very people to rise in arms among us,
and to purchase that liberty of which he
has deprived them, by numbering the
people on whom he also obtruded them (;
thus paying off former crimes commit
ted against the liberties of one people
with crimes which he urges them to
commit against the lives of another"
That this truthful count in the indict-
ment against Great Britain was stricken
out of the Declaration regret, as all
liberty-loving men have regretted, but
that it was stricken out, and at such a
time and under the circumstances tells
you better than / can tell you of the
danger which imperils the lite of ma
tion that fosters and protests privileged
class.
Since the establishment of our indie
pendence the existence and growing
strength of this slaveholding privileged
class has been source of anxious solici-
tude on the part of leading patriots and
statesmen, not only in the North, but
also in the South. To the careful study
and investigation of the question which
has caused the present rebellion have
given the best years of my life, and with
most men who have impartially exam
ined it, have been satisfied for nearly
ten years that the day was speedily APP
preaching when the question was to be
settled by the American people wheth-
er slavery, to use the language of Pres
ident Lincoln" should be put where it
the people would rest in the belief that
it was in the course of ultimate extinc-
tion," or the United States become a
slaveholding empire.
That / have been disappointed in some
of my conclusions touching the final dis
position of this question and the ulti-
mate action of the slave masters them
selves, am frank to admit. Certainly
ten or twelve years ago | did not sup
pose it possible that the old democratic
party to which / then belonged and
which l venerated for its great leaders
and liberal principles could ever be di-
vided and destroyed as it has been by
the slave power, and felt confident un-
til after took my seat in Congress for
the first time that whatever disposition
might be made of this question it would
at last find peaceful solution. Before
the close Of the seth Congress l chang
ed my mind and came reluctantly to the
conclusion that nothing but the direct
interposition Of Providence could save
us as a nation and people from a bloody