The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-04-15
An Eloquent Peroration.

An Eloquent Peroratfon.
Persons who we're present at the Democrat
ic meeting on Saturday night, represent The
speech of Mr.. MoSwEEsEY as one of the
richest oratorical treats they ever enjoyed
His peroration was particularly eloquent, and
we-regret our inability to give it to our read.
ers- as it fell from the lips of the speaker. The
Following is but an imperfect sketch of the
powerful appeal with which the speaker closed
his argument. lie said
awe have assembled together, not by the
permission merely of our adversaries, not by
grace or favor of our rulers, but by virtue of
the Constitution of our fathers, which secures
to us the unalterable right of peaceably as.
sembling together, the right of free speech
and afree press, the right to discuss the char
acter and conduct of our servants, the rightto
dencupce and point out corruption in high
places, and the right to petition the Goucrn-
ment for the redress of grievances under
which we suffer. -
@Fhe Constitution with all its compromises
is the political Bible of the Democratic party.
Uponzthis rockhave we built our church, and
against it the gates of he'll shall not prevail,
over Its proud ramparts the Secession hosts of
the rebel shall never Chamber, and against its
ba e the foam of Abortion fanaticism shall
dash in vain. ASDemocracy with the proud
record of three quarters of a century, can we'll
accord to their silly foes and paltry childish
privilege of c.lling names. The equanimity
of no oneshoqld be Disturbed thereby. But
when they 60 further, and presuming too
much on the long suffering and forbearance of
the peoples attempt by threats of violence
and bloodshed to check the utterance of the
thoughts of frecmen, they will discover that
we are not dastards nor igDoble descendants
of those who baptised with their blood and
transmitted to US the priceless boon of liberty
regulated by law. The sooner this is learned
by the blind advocates of force, the sooner
will there be presented a more formidable
front to the Southern foe.
Democrats will assembie-will discuss-will
think-will speak and have a voice in the at
tempt to preserve our common country from
meeting the fate of those nations whose ty.
rants crushed out free thought and speech,
and which now only live in TIE musty records
OF things that once were, but are no more for
ever
You may imprison the body, but the spirit
Of man is not bound by chains The fatter-
ers Ind sycophants around the throne of good
King Canute Of the olden time, assured him
that the winds of heaven and the waves of
the deep were subject to his will and the
monarch, to teaal them a lesson as to the true
kinglyspower, babe them bring his
royal throne to the margin of the sea and to
him with massive chains wherewith to
bind the advancing waves. But the wild wa.
we're nearing the shore. They receed ed
not before the royal command. They tossed
MS iron letters in playful glee, and the af-
c%ourtiers were glad to rush to the res
cue of their monarch and save him from the
oceans wrath. And the poet, Selling the le-
,end, has beautifully and truthfully said:
rI 1anfa in vain w froca tba Iv;zard ,;nr
n vain ye limit Minds unwearied spring;
What! can ye lull the winged winds asleep,
Arrest the rolling world, or chain the deep?.
70 the wind wave contemns thy scepteredhand,
I rolled not back when Canute gave command.
Nor can any man, in this year of our Lord,
whether robed in the purple garments of Kai-
er, Gar, or Khan, or King, or President,
lace himself upon the great and boundless !
ca of thought, and as the heaven-born. emo
ions of freedom take to themselves the form
nd utterance of speech, bind them with
or fetter them with links OF steel; nor, j
t the imperial sway of his puny sceptsr, bid +
he wild waves be still s
hey rolled not back when Canute gave com mand.
Freezthought and free speech will break |
trough the dungeon bars which entomb the J
,ody-will risesfrom the gloomy vaults of the 1
owest and flthiest cell of Fort Warren-will |
Gale the hattlem ents and lofty turrets of &
Lafayette-will catch the first glow i
f the mornings glad boam-will penetrate
nd illumine every dark spot where foul. on :
ression is doing its cruel work, and will final !
? triumph over all its foes, forit is a heayen-fS
Orn gift of God to man, and therefore cannot &
shall not perish. =
We copy the above eAtra,t from a speech 6
lade by JOHN McswRENEY at Wooster, a $
hort time since. 1t is certainly one of the :
lost eloquent perorations We ever read orI il
card. sneaking pack Of abolition blood /
ounds have got to hunting Nc. and instead v
: running him he turne at bay and "squelch-
r. the blood hunting thieves. A short time
nee these black snakes wrote to the State I
ournal that Me. was a Van Buren, abolition g
t. This being a charge of no ordinary j
eanness no wonder that it raised his ire,-or Il
ish;T-and that he event in on them" as on Z
Nc. can do. II
in oain ye trace The ,cizdrd ring, "
Is vas ys lint mi ,ds usvsdrsed spraJ." 81