The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-10-31

Gle on which He measures time and events.
He expedites or retards as it pleases Him !;
and if He heard our cries or prayers, not
thrice would the months revolve but peace
would come. But the strong crying and
prayers of millions hayenot brought peace,
but only thickening war. We accept the
Providence; the duty is plain. [Cheers and
Iinterruption.] / repeat, the duty is plain.
/ |[Cheers.l So rooted is this English people
in the faith of liberty that it were an utter
| ly hopeless task for any minion or sympa-
thizer of the South to sway the popular
sympathy of England If this English peo-
pie believed that there was none other than
| a conflict between Liberty and Slavery. 1t
is just that. [Loud cheers.]
am here to be sure, in some points to
cite history, but for the most part stand a
witness to testify what have seen of things,
with which l have intimately mingled,
which have been common to me since my
| boyhood-things which I do know, and
which history will establish beyond all
peradventure or controversy. But let me
go back little before my time, for am
not yet 100 years old. [Laughter.] Slavery
was introduced into our country at time,
and in manner, when England nor Amer
ica knew welr what were the results Of that
atrocious system. 1t was ignorantly re-
ceived and propagated on our side; little
by little it spread through all the thirteen
States that then We're, for Slavery in the
beginning was in New England, such as it
now is in the Southern States. But when
the great struggle of our revolution came
on, the study of the doctrines of human
rights had made such progress that the
whole public mind began to think it was
wrong to wage war to defend our rights
while we were holding men in slavery, de-
priving them Of theirs. 1t is an historical
fact, that all the great and renowned men
that flourished at the period of our Revolu-
ton were Abolitionists. Washington was;
so was Benjamin Franklin; so was Thomas
Jefferson; so was James Monroe; so were
the eprincipal Virginian and Southern States
men, and the first Abolition Society ever
| founded in America was founded, not in
the North, but in the Middle and portion
of the Southern States. Cheers. After
the Declaration of Independence and the
adoption of our Constitution, Slavery began
to cease. 1t never had been very abund-
ant institution in New England, because
the habits of the people and their conscien-
tious convictions did not make them great
friends of Slavery. 1t has been said they
sold their slaves, and preached a cheap
emancipation to the South. Slavery ceased
in this wise in Massachusetts. Suit was
brought for the services of a slave, and the
| Chief Justice declared the declaration of
the equality of all men and their right to
life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happi-
ness was equivalent to the bill OF Emanci-
patton, and he refused to render back that
| slaves services.
At later period, New York brought an
Emancipation Act. 1t has been said that
she sold her slaves. No SANDER was ever
greater. The most careful provision was
made. No man travelling out of the State
of New York after the passing of the Eman-
cpation act was permitted to have any
slave with him, unless he gave bonds for
his re-appearance with him. AS a matter
of fact the slaves were emancipated with
out compensation on the spot, to take eff
feet gradually, class by class. But after a
trial Of halfa score of years the people found
this gradual emancipation was intolerable.
Hear, hear.] 1t is like gradual amputa-
| ton. They, therefore, met together, and
: by another act of legislation they declared
immediate emancipation-[hear]- land that
took effect; and so Slavery perished in the
State. of New York. [Cheers.] Sub
stantially so it was in New Jersey, and in
Pennsylvania; substantially so it may be
said, in respect to the Northern States, that
there never was an example of nations that
(emancipated slaves so purely from moral
conviction of the wrong of Slavery.
i l know that it is said that Northern cap
ital and Northern ships were employed in
the slave trade. To an extent it was so.-
But is there any community that lives in
which there are not miscreants who vio-
late the public feelings? [Cheers.] Then
and since the man who dared to use his
capital and his ships in this infamous
traffic hid himself, and did by agents what
he was ashamed to be known to have done
himself Hear. No man in the North
who had part or lot in this infamous traffic
in slaves, but would have been branded
with the mark of Cain. [Cheers. 1t is
true that New York port has been en-
ployed in this internal traffic, but it was
because it was unfortunately under the in
t1uence either of that Democratic party
that is in alliance with the Southern Sla-
very-thear, hear or because it was un-
der the dark political control Of the South
itself. For when the South could appoint
our marshaFs, when the South appointed
through the Administration the Secreta-
ries OF the Treasury, and the officers of the
when everything by the political ma
f chinery ofthe South was favoring slavery,
it could not but be that there should be the
running OF the gauntlet i'll our ports, and
that the slave-trade should be carried on !;
but it was by the immense majority of the
people abhorred, and the men who did it
were detested. [Cheers.] There was one
Judas is Christianity therefore a hoax
. Iiear.] There are kissing men III the eu-
, dience-are you not respectable? Cheers
and laughter The folly of the few is that
light which God casts to irradiate the wis
dom of the many. [Hear.] But when the
, Constitution itself was formed there was
, such feeling opposed to Slavery that you
are familiar with the fact that Mr.. Madi-
| son and Mr.. Randolph refused to permit
the word s'servitude' to go into that decu-
: ment, and on this express ground, that the
J time would come when Slavery was to
, end, and that they would not have the me-
mortal of such a disgrace remaining in the
great charter Of our liberties. [Cheers. J.
So the work was changed from "servi-
tude' to Service" Hear.l And let me
say one word here about the Constitution.
g of America. 1t recognizes Slavery as a
+ fact, but it does not recognize the doctrine
| of Slavery in any way whatever it was a
r fact; it lay before the ship Of state as a
rock lies in the channel of the ship as she
l goes into harbor and because ship steers
round rock does it follow that that rock
e is in the ship?, Hear" and laughter
2 Aud because the Constitution of the United
/, States made some circuits to steer round
|; that great fact, does it follow that there
f fore Slavery is recognized in the Consti-
g tuition as right or system. MOL See
how carefully that immortal document
yyorfeJ itself Tn the slave laws tho slaya