The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1862-05-27

tie against US, | ask you, suppose We had ap-
pealed TO your bondmen to come on our side,
where, in Gods name, would you have been
to.dayG DO you not see that it is owing to
our forbearance to use the power the Almigh.
fy has put in our hands that you traitors
breathe the breath Of life today? | wonder,
sir, that honorable men, statesmen
Mr. IaNDERsoN. Will the Senator per.
NIT me to interrupt him for a moment!
Mr. WADE. Certainly.
Hr. HENDERSON. | appreciate the kind
ness of the Senator in his allus on to the hor.
der State mon; but | desire to ask him if it
be desirable to do away with the institution
of slavery entirely throughout these States; if
he has perfectly satisfied his mind that his
course will accomplish it sooner than the
course of the border State men.
Mr.. WADE. Mr. President, am not per
mitted 10 choose my course; and this leads
me TO another observation that | will make
on point which has been very much argued
here: what - the object Of the war; For
what is it prosccuted9 Is 1t for the purpose
Of abolition aud emancipation? Gentlemen
have sometimes charged that the war was
commenced and prosecuted with that view
ter. The war was commenced upon US, and
all there was for us to do was purely the
right Of self defence. We had no other alter
native.
Mr.. ii NDERsoS. The Senator will excuse
me for saying | certainly made no such argu.
ment.
Mr.. WADE. did not say the gentleman
did. lex2nse him, and know that among all
the saCacous men in the South he is among
the most liberal. He cannot help seeing
that great many things have said here to
day are true.
Sir, If YOU are not able 10 make head against
u in the field, it is not because YOU are not
equally brave and enterprisin.; it is not even
for the lack Of numbers; but it is because
slavery has i'm overshed you, emasculated
YOU, and now without our appealing to the
force You feel would be most potent to put
treason down, you are still on the declining
side. | do not invoke it; but when ! see
black regiments put forward to shoot down
my sons who are in the war and your rea
tivoa, when | see these black chattels thrust
forth in front of the chvarous owners to
shoot down, murder, and destroy our men
who have gone TO the fields only in defence Of
our glorious institutions, am strongly tempt
ed to make the appeal, and say to your bonds
men: Stand forth invested in the rights
wherewith God Almighty hath clothed you;
come 10 our side; help to fight the battles Of
freedom, and YOU shall be free Ii would on
" be a righteous retrihuiou TO those who
have held then against common right. Sup.
pose we should do it, what would become Of
this rebellion? Whcro would traitors be -
Talk to us of prosecuting the war in a vindic
tive spirit They may thank your God that
we have been as forbcaring rs we have.
But, sir, was diverted from the course Of
argument | Intended to pursue. say these
reflections fill me VIII wonder that sagacous,
honorable men Of the southern States do not
Of their own accord arise and put down an in.
stlution that so weakens and cmasculates
them, and which places them in the power Of
the free States around them whenever they
shall thnk best to put them down. Nv bor
der State friends might just as we'll look t is
sutj ct square j. the face am not an aho.
lition>t in tho sense in which they speak Of
abolition; but | am going to announce the
plain fact.
have said that in the progress Of nations,
after certain advance in civilization and the
arts, slavery becomes impossible. Deeply
rooted as this institution OF slavery is, every
invention Of u useful character for thousand
years has tended to make it impossible
Once you might work Il galley slave with
profit. Warlike nations formely put slaves
aboard of their armed ships as motive power
to propel them against the enemy, and made
them labor in that way. Could that system
be continued now' Slavery might then be
useful IN war when the nation having the
most slaves to man its galleys was the strong
est and most powerful How is it whom you
put the galley slave against tho steam engine
Was it an abolitoni>t that argued down the
institution! Can yon work a naked savage or
a negro against u steam engine' II you can.
not, your system is at an end. Every labor
saving machine is an aboliliouist. Every puff
Of the engine upon railroad is an abolition
sermon, T re potent and moro effective than
was ever preached by mouth Of aboltioni,t.
Can YOU work slave, carrying his bundle on
his back, against the tremendous power and
energy of the locomotive on your railroad p
Can YOU put the one against the other =
How is it with tho reaper We have introduced
iuto our fields 10 harvest our grain, tho tre-
mcndous power of onr moving machines,
power loons, aud spinning jcunes? | might
count over from now till to morrow the instru-
mcntalities that have rendered your system
absolutely impossible; and yet against the
laws of God and nature, you arc hanging on
with ltnpotent pcrtinacity to system that
has passed away and can ncvor be removed.
Sir, am not very solicitous about it. It's
very rars that YOU hear me speak on this sub
jet Of slavery; but when gent leman rise here
day by day and talk about the object Of this
war; whether j. be for the prcpeturtion of ia
very or freedom, thUk it best to take com
nonsense view Of the subject and see how II
stands. am SO entirely convinced of It's i'm
potency, is failure to answer the rcIulsltIonS
of the state # civilization to which We have
approached, that have no t'ars of It. Sir,
it will pass away. II every man IN this Sen
ate, il every man in this Congress, stood forth
as an advocate for perpetual aud eternal slav
ery,it would only be the poor instrumental
ties Of man fighting against God. God and
nature havo determined the question, and we
shall not affect il much either way. But |
throw ont rhcsc hints to these gentlemen who
sccm To believe that the world will not go
round when slavery is abolished. As the Al