Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1863-05-29

BLAIR AT THE MASS MEETING IN
CLEVELAND, WEDNESDAY, MAY
20TH, 1893.
yFELLow4 4CITTzESs:--My heart responds warm
ly to the feeling which induces your kind re-
ception could not forego the opportunity Of
fcfed by the invitation to be present on this oc
casion to meet so many earnest men in the
cause OF our country and unite in your efforts
to carry on the struggle and crown IL with sue
cess. tlfIH I'll. Dr. uHiIsHlfsa
SLAVERY OR THE GovERxMENr.
A reaction against free government in the
United States and in this age, bears upon its
front the works of insanity. The father of the
conspiracy, Of which the convulson which now
fills the country with suffering and dismay is
the offspring, wore on his face, as remarked by
many observers, when his last words and dying
imprecations against the principles of our con-
stitution were read in the Senate, the ghastly
aspect of monomaniac. His conspiracy pro-
longed through thirty years CESSATION had ev-
EN- then vitality to make itself painfully felt;
and now the monstrous birth is stamped with
his phrenzied features.
But neither the mysterious workings of oath
bound societies, nor the public agitation contri-
we'd by intrigue in Congress, in State legislatures
aud election canvasses, to engender partzan fury
prepared the country to expect and meet the
shock it has received. The progress of the Gov
ernmept had been so easy prosperous and glor-
OF greater strength and renown, that scarcely
any sound mind supposed it possible that an
assassin attempt would be made to close its ca
reer by sudden blow, as if its life were as fral
as that of an individual. There is no parallel
in the history of the world of similar assault
on vast benificent, beloved, popular govern
ment, without even an alleged act of oppression
on its part to provoke it, and whilst it was actu-
ally administered and its advantages enjoyed by
the very men who aimed the stroke for its des-
truction. ,i,4ff
But whilst prosperity made US insensible to
the danger, the wise and patriotic men who
founded our Government saw in Slavery a mine
by which phrenzy and selfish ambition might
lay their work in ruin. The slavery of one race
they felt was not compatible with the freedom
OF another. They hoped the superior race, in
fiuenced by the benign tendencies of the Gov
eminent they managed and enjoyed, would ul-
timately extend the blessings of liberty to a de-
pendent people and effectually remove their
disabilities on new scene of useful and inde-
pendent exertion. These considerations induc-
ed the sages on founding the Republic not "a
disturb this poisoness element which they be-
lieved the vigor of the Constitution would work
out of the system in time. They lived TO see
their fond hopes prove delusions-the noxious
plant of African growth taking root in the aceu-
mutations ofavnrice, worked by the energy of a
great race outstript all the sweet shoots Of hu-
(
the benevolent philosophy of our forefathers-
Inpain truth, Slavery has propogated in its
region in prodigiOus strength all that is evil in
the nature of our countrymen, and stihed all the
virtues in which our glorious Government had
its origin. How strikingly this is demonstra-
ted by the fact, that whilst there was not man
in the South, who contributed to establish the
free institutions among us who did not denounce
Slavery as curse from which the country must
somehow be redeemed, now there is not one of
that slave breeding and governing class who
does not proclaim it as the all essential blessing
for which life itself must be sacrificed. s
The process by which this melancholy change
has been accomplished, is illustrated by the
drunkard's career. ,- This unhappy class of rep
robates once felt that decency sobriety, indus
try and purity, were the true sources of happi-
ness But long indulgence in Intoxicating
draughts render existence burden unless slim
ulated into extravagant foolery; wild hilarity
or sensual indolence then become their only
good M a-s3T wsiy-f ssssf Ola SO
Negro slavery is that black opium drug in the
South which eXctes il into delirious phrenzy, or
sinks it into that sad lethargy, both alike fatal
to its prosperity. 1t pampers every vice and
| impairs every virtue. sfuts-3f
| And cana State prosper under system work.
ing such decentralization? The picture now pre-
sented in the land of slaves tells the same story
which is to be found in the annals of every slave
eiDplTc All Asia mas Deen corrupted DV Sld-
very Africa, its birth place, has ever been a
desert. The glorous ancient Republics perished
under its influence after reaching the highest
point of civilization by the hardy virtues of
free people, and modern Europe only redeemed
herself from the common fate by the extinction
of the feudal system that originated serfdom.
Reverence for the hopeful idea of our fathers,
and the inherent virtue ofthe constitution would
extingush slavery, induced all who felt that its
permanence would be destructive to aeqniesce
in passive resistance to its extension, although
that resistance had proved unavailing to its first
encroachments west of the Mississippi. 1t was
hoped that the passion for expansion would be
allayed by the surrender Of Missouri and the ac-
QUESTION of Texas, and that the compromise line
established in 1920 and re- affirmed in 1850 as
the northern boundary of slavery would be re-
spected. But having secured the President,
both branches of. Congress- and the Supreme
Court, the slave power resolved to break all COM
pacts and strike for the empire of the continent.
Kansas was taken by force, and a slave govern
ment designed to be established by fraud and
the Supreme Court affirmed principle in the
| Dred Scott case which carried it all over our
country. Slavery the court said was a proper
| ty which was held under the constitution of the
United States, and for that reason could not be
excluded from the territories by their lawful
government. The reasoning applies to the
States as well as TO the territories for the con
stitutlon OF the United States is equally rara-
mount in both. Their fillibustering operations
having failed in their attempt TO steal Cuba and
Central America, they prepared TO take these
countries openly by the power of the govern
ment Such were the means adopted prior to
the war TO make the constitution Of the United
State what that of the COnfederacy now is, an
instrument to increase, diffuse and perpetuate
slavery, and make it a continental institution.
But the oligarchy saw by the election of Lin
1t a.. - Al. 4 n
would reverse these wrongs and prevent future
aggressions either to extend slavery further
south or to maintain it in the regions subjected
by the Supreme Court They were prepared
for this contingency, and flew 10 arms TO assert
their doctrine that slavery was the best founda-
ton for Government and have undertaken, like
Mahomet, the propagation of their faith and In
stitutiohsby the sword. 's i-ai e, hm
| Hence, il was in vain that Nj. Crittenden's
appeasing resolutions were passeh-in vain that
an amendment TO the Constitution declaring
Slavery to be irreyocably established, unless
abolished by the States within which it existed
mo sacrifice, not even that of the Constitution
to give additional guarantees to Slavery where
II existed, could have saved the country from war
for by ythat means alone, it was now evident coulc
slavery be made the dominant principle in tn,
New World. 1t is that domination for whicl
they are contending. independence is sough
only as the means Of effecting that object. Ono,
possessed by that means of the control of tn,
Mississippi, they think that the Northwes
would adopt the Confederate Consultation, anC
sacrifiea the fraAdana of ths A., "A.