The Ohio Democrat. [volume] (Canal Dover, Ohio) 1840-1900, 1863-09-18

resolutions OF the "Compromlse Meet
ing" of 1850 were re.afirmed. Mr..
VS. speech on the occasion is regarded
as the most valuable and important of
his life. Of it we only say that what
was then prophecy is now history. The
following are extracts:
All this, gentlemen, the spirit of Abo-
lition has accomplished in twenty years
of continued and exhausting labors Of
every sort But in all that time, not
one convert has it made in the South !;
not one slave emancipated, except by
larceny and in fraud of the solemn com.
pacts of the Constitution. Meantime
public opinion has wholly, radically
changed in the South. The South has
ceased to denounce, ceased to condemn
slavery, ceased even to palliate, and be
gun now almost as one man, to defend
it as great moral social and political
blessing. The bitter and proscriptive
warfare Of twenty years has brought
forth its natural and legitimate fruit in
the South. Exasperation, hate, and re.
venge are every day ripening into fullest
maturity and strength, and throughout
her entire extent she awaits but the &C.
tion of the North, to unite in solemn
league and covenant to resist aggression
even unto blood.
know well, indeed, Mr.. President,
that in the evil day which has befalIen
US, oil this and be who utters it, shall be
denounced as "pro-Slavery;" and alrea.
dy, from ribald throats, there comes up
the slavering, driveling, idiotic epithet
of "dough,face." Again, be it so.-
These, abolitionists, are your only weap.
ons of warfare, and l hurl them back
into your teeth. speak thus boldly
because speak in and to and for the
North. 1t is time that the truth should
be known and heard, in this age of trim
ming and subterfuge. l speak this day
not as Northern man, nor Southern
man, but, God be thanked, still as a
United States man, with United States
principles-and though the worst hap.
pen which can happen. though all be
lost, if that shall be our fate, and | walk
through the valley of the shadow of po.
litical death, l will live by them and die
by them. Ifto love my country, to cher.
sh the Union, to revere the Constitu-
tion, if to abhor the madness and hate
the treason which would lift sacrilig.
ious hand against either; if to read that
in the past, to behold 1t in the present,
to forsee it in the future Of this land,
which is of more value to Us than the
world for ages to come, than the multi
piled millions who have inhabited Afri.
CO from the creation to this day-if this
is to be pro, slavery, then in every nerve,
fiber, vein, bone, tendon, joint and liga
ment, from the topmost hair of my head
to the last extremity of my foot, | am
all over and altogether a pro slavery
man
The true and only question now be.
fore you is, whether you will have the
Union with all its uumberess blessings
in the past, present and future; or dis
urion and civil war, with all its multi
piled crimes, miseries and atrocities,
which human Imagination never con,
ceived and human pen never can por.
tray.
Ispcak it boldly; Iavow tpublicly-
it is time to speak thus-for political
cowardice is the bane of this, as of oh
republics. To be true to our great
mission, and to succeed in it, You must
take open, maply, one.side ground upon
the abolition question. IN no other way
can you now conquer. Let us have,
then, no hollow compromise; no idle
and miStmed homilies upon the sin and
evil of slavery in crisis like this; no
double-tongued, faced, delphic
responses at your State Convention
No, fling your banner to the breeze, and
boldly meet the issue Patriotism above
mock philanthropy; the Constitution be-
fore any miScalled higher law Of morals
or religion and the Union of more val
ue than many negroes.
If thus, sir, we are true to the coun.
try; true to the Union and the Consti-
tuition; true to our principles, true to
our cause, and to the grand mission
which lies before us, we shall turn back
yet the fiery torrent which is bearing us
headlong down the abyss of disunion
and infamy, deeper than plummet ever
sounded. But if in this day Of our trial
we are found false to all of these ; false
to those who shall come after us; trai.
tors to our country and to the hopes oil
free government throughout the globe
Bancroft will yet write the last sad chap
ter in the history of the American Re.
public.
Of this speech the Dayton Journal
(Republican) says:
"Tbe principal demonstration of Mr.
Vallapdigham was against fanaticiSm
and SeotionaliSm; and here much thai
he said was just to the point. He was
anxious to meet and repel every attempt
to make the existence of Slavery in the
South, or elsewhere, pretext for the
formation of sectional parties which
must endanger the perpetuity of the
Union"
Extract from his speech in Congress
the session of 1859 and 1860, during
the contest for Speaker of the House o.
Representatives: He said:
Then, sir, l am against disunion.
find no more pleasure in Southern dis.
nnioniet than in q Markham or Wpefprr