The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-06-03
SPEECH OF HON. MONTGOMERY
ESLAIR AT THE GREAT UNION
MEETING IN CLEVELAND,

SPEECH OF HON, M0NTGOMERY
EsLAIR AT THE GREAT UNION
MEETING IN CLEVELAND.
The Chairman introduced to the au-
dience, amidst great applause, Post Master
General Blair, who spoke as follows: aso
FELLOW CITIZENS My heart responds
warmly to the feeling which induces your
kind reception. I could not forego the ep-i
portunity offered by the invitation to be pres
ent on this occasion to meet so many earnest
men in the cause of our country AMI unite in
your efforts to carry on the struggle and crown
it with success.
SLAVERY OR THE GOVERNMENT ~=5
The reaction against free Government in
the United States and in this age, bears upon
its front the marks of insanity The father
of the conspiracy, of which the convulsion
which now fills the country with suffering
and dismay, is Jthe offspring, wore on his face,
as was remarked by many observers, when his
lastswords and dying impreeations against the
principles of onr Constitution We're read in
the Senate, the CHASTITY aspect of monoma-
MAC. His conspiracy prolonged through 3d.
years CESSATION had even then a vitality to
make itself painfully felt, and now the mon
strous birth is stamped with his phrenzied
! features.
+ But neither the mysterious workings of
\ Oath-E5und societies, nor the public agitation
| contrived lg intrigue, in Congress, in State
| Legislatures and election canvasses. to engen-
/ der partizan fury, prepared the country to ex-
! pect and meet the Shock it has received The
| progress of the Gov pernment had been so ca
! sy, prosperous and glorious it had attained
such high rank. with States of greatest
| strength and renow that scarcely any sound
! ,i,,J
tempt'would be made to close its career by
sudden blow, as if its life were as fraiI as
that of an individual. There is no parallel
in the history of the world of similar as
sault on vast benifcent, beloved popular
Government, without even an alleged act of
oppression on its part to provoke it, and
whilst it was actually administered and its ad-
,vantages enjoyed by, the 'ery men who aimed
the stroke for its destruction.
But whilst prosperity make us insensible
to the danger, the wise and patriotic men who
founded the 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, influenced by the benign ten
dencies of the Government they managed
and enjoyed, would ultimately extend the
blessing of liberty to a dependent people and
etfectually remove their disabilities son a new
scene of useful and independent exertion.-
These considerations induced the sages on
founding the Republic not to disturb that poi
| sonous element which they believed the vi
gor of the Constitution would work out of
f the system in time. They lived to see their
fond hopes prove delusions..i The noxious
plant of barbarous African growth, taking
root in the accumulations of avarice, worked
| by the energy of great race outstript all the
, sweet shoots of humanizing culture giving to
to our constitution by the benevolent philoso-
ply of our forefathers. In plain truth, Sla-
very has propagated in its region in prodi-
gious strength all that is evil in the nature of
our countfymen, and stifed all the virtues in
which our glorious Government had its ori-
gin. How strikingly this is demonstrated by
the fact, that whilst there was not a man in
, the South. who contributed to establish the
free institutions among u.s. who did not de-
nounce 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 itsel
, must be sacrificed. as is# 3Eea
, -, The process by (which this melancholy
! charge has been accomplished is illustrated
by the drunkard's career, This unhappy
class of reprobates once felt that decency, SO.
briefly, industry and purity were the true sour
/ ces of happiness But long indulgence inin-
toxicating draughts renders existence. bur-
den unless stimulated into extravagant feel
ing; wild hilarity or sensual Incidence ther
d become their only good Negro Slavery il
0 that black opium drug intthe. South which
excites it into deluiousl phrenzy or sinks il
into that sad lethargy, both alike fatal to it.
: pairs every virtue.
S And can State prosper under a system
o working such decentralization The picture
= now presented in the land of Slaves tells tht
: same story which is to be found in the annal:
of every Slave empire. All Asia has beer
o corrupted by Slavery. Africa, its birth place
r has ever been desert The glorious ancien
n republics perished under its influence, aftel
reaching the highest point of civilization by
the hardy virtues of free people, and mod,
:. ern Europe only redeemed herself from the
e common fate by the extinction of the feuda
: system that originated serfdom. t5T'la''-2l-
i. g Reverence for the hopeful idea of our faith
ers that the inherent virtue of the Gonstitu
:, ton would extinguish Slavery induced al
" who felt that its permanence would be des
S tructive, to acquiesc8in passive resistance tt
b to its extension, although that resistance hat
q proved unayailing to its first encroachment
! West of the Mississippi. 1t was hoped tha
the passion for expansion would be allayec
: by the surrender of Missouri and the acquisi
e ton Of Texas, and that the compromise lint
n established in 1920 and reapproved in 1850 al
the northern boundary of slavery would b
respected. But having secured the President
q both branches of Congress and the Supreme
d Court, the Slave power resolved to break al
! compacts and strike for the empire OF the con
4 tinent. Kansas was taken by force and ;
N Slave Government was designed to be estab
i lished by fraud, and the Supreme Courtafhrm
r. ed principle in the Dred Scott case which
d carried it all over our country. Slavery, th
), Court said, was property which was hel'
;, under the Constitution of the United States
), and for that reason could not be eXcluded from
u the Territories by their lawful Government
d The reasoning applies to the States as well t
t. the Territories for the Constitution OF thu
"a United States is equally paramount IN both
Their. fillibusters or pirates having failed II
g their attempt to seize Cuba and Central Amer
y ica. thev proposed to take these countrie
IL openly by the power of the Government
% Such were the means adopted prior to tb,
:. war to make the Constitution of the United
. States what that of the Coptederacy now is
rs an instrument to increase, diffuse and perpet
eI uate Slavery and made it E continental inst
t, tution but the oligarchy saw by the election
! of Lincoln that the peaceful action OF tn
ballot box would reverse these wrongs an'
prevent future aggressions either TO exten'
l. Slavery further South or to maintain 1t IN tn
If ressoos subjected by the Supreme Conrts-