Delaware State journal and statesman. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1855-1870, 1863-04-24

] Ane venerable patriot, Josiah Quincy, now il
his 92d year, delivered on the 9th of March The
following patriotic and eloquent address before
the members Of the Union CLUB Of Boston;
Mr. President and Gentlemen Your wish
and an Irresistible sense Of duty have placed me
In this connection wi Ii this society.
~ was induced 10 become one Of your mum
Der at period Of life when 1t may justly be
deemed presumption to join such n society but
l regard TIE war in which the United States are
now engaged as involving a crisis in the coudi-
ton of the whole human race, from which no
human being has right to shrink or of success
in it TO despair.
1.-THE point now at issue is not whether human
beings may be held to slavery through power but
whether they may he made slaves by right -
Hitherto slavery has been permitted by the
nations Of the enrth as n power-that those who
could get a slave, by whatever means, had &C
CURED power with which other nations had no
authority to interfere 1t is now for the first
time in the history of man, by the leaders of this
rebellion, announced as principle of right and
avowedly made the corner stone of their Con-
federAcy
I" lu the convention in which the constitution
OF that Confederacy was formed, A. II. Stephens,
the Vice President of that convention, publicly
declared, that the object of that association
was to put On end, forever, to the agtating cues.
ton concerning African slavery : that it placed
the African in his proper status in civilization
that it was not founded on the principle that all
men were born free aud equal but upon exactly
the opposite idea, that it's foundations are laid,
its corner stone rests, upon the great truth that
the African Is not tue equal of the white man
that slavery, that subOrdination to the superior
race, is his natural and normal condition. This
our new government Vice President Stephens
adds, lis the first in the history of the werld based
upon this great physical, philosophical and moral
truth.
Such was the open, public avowed declara-
ton of one oil the great leaders Of this rebellion
which was received by shouts and acclamation
within doors, and by vast multitude congre-
gated without doors, who could not for want of
spnce, be admitted within them
" There is now no possible doubt concerning
the object and nature of the constitution Of this
COnfederacy, that it is to establish among the
whole human rnce new form of civilization. In
conformity with its principles the founders of it
give public notice to the nations of the earth
that the old form of civilization has been by them
abrogated leaving no loOphole or pretence for
any ualiOn or individual TO escape from the di-
lemma, or from the duty of either abandoning the
old or resisting the new form of civilization The
enslaving of Africans is, on the principle of this
Confederacy, no longer mere power to be ex
ercsed when an individual could DO bought, in.
herited or stolen, but Is founded on an immutnbe
principle of assumption, that the African race
have been constituted by God and nature unequal
to the Caucasian; including, not the duty of the
latter to aid them in rising ia the scale of civil
Eation, but the right Of reducing them to q state
of forced servitude, and Of depriving them of all
social and moral rights of liberty, property, and
even life having no property in themselves,
their wives, nor their offspring all being holden
at the will and subject 10 the control of the eau
oasan master. 10 this condition the constitution
Of this contederacy reduces the whole African
race aud, while declaring these to be its prin-
oiples, their founders claim the privilege of being
admitted into the society Of the nations of the
earth Principles worthy only of being con-
eeived and prom ulgated by the inmates of the
internal regions and IA fit constitution for con-
federacy In pandemonium
Now, as soon as the nature Of this consttu-
ton is truly explained and understood, is it pos
sible that the nations of the earth admit such
q Confederacy into their society? Can any
nation, calling itself civilized, associate with any
sense of selfrespect, with nation avowing and
practising such principles? Will not every
civilized nation, when the nature of this Con-
federacy is understood, come to the side Of the
United States, and refuse all association with
them, as, in truth, they are, hostes humaAi gene
yis? For the African IS as much entitled to be
protected in the rights Of humanity us any other
portion Of the human race
Gas to Great Britain, her course is, in the
nature of things, already fixed and immutable.
She must, sooner or later join the United States
in this war or be disgraced throughout all futute
time for the principle Of that civilization which
this COnfederacy repudiates was by her-to her
great glory and with unparalleled sacrihces-in-
troduced into the code OF civilization; and she
will prove herself rocreant, if she fails to main
tain it,.