The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1864-03-04
s,eeen o. Q. ,. nsnaKe.

speech - Q. ,. nsaks. ar
We make the following brief extracts |
from the able speech Of G. b. Drake of
st. Louis, at the Louisville Convention
rHr.rsssmrsf's EMxNc1pArIoH raocLA.
NATION.
Not for censure upon the President
have I thus adverted to what consider
the defect Of his great act of Emancipa-
ton. I thank him for that act; the hu-
man race is his debtor for it, and for it
history will honor him. I only regret that
he should not have seen his way clear to
pronounce the doom of slavery in the
whole land. But yet may it not be that
the completion of this grand work has
been left BY Providence to the loyal peo-
pie Of the Border States as their special
privilege and peculiar glory They have
sent forth their sons to every battlefield
for the Union but so hss the North
They have mourned over their slain in
the battles under the old Flag but so has
the North. In all these things, the free
States of the North and the Border States
have moved together. sharing the tolls,
the dangers, the suferings, the sorrows
and sacrifices of this unequslsd war. But
beside all this, it is for these Border States
to lay upon their country's altar nobler
sacrifice than any the North can bring !;
it is for them to give the final extermina.
ting blow to that institution which, has
wound itself into the deepest recesses of
their domestic and social life, and their
organized existence, and proclaim at once
emancipation to the black race and death
less freedom to the white. Applause
| say the final exterminating blow, be-
cause it is for those States to give it, SO
for as separate State action is concerned
With the full assent of my deliberate
judgment, l hold that the Proclamation
of Emancipation was constitutional ex-
ercise of the war power of the Nation,
and that, 10 law, it did, at the moment OF
its issue, free every slave in the whole re-
gion embraced in its terms; and | hold,
moreover, that it was no temporary expe-
dent. like the marching of An army, for
ward to-day, to be counlermarched to-mor-
row. if strategy require; but fat Of in
slant, eternal emancipation, never to be
recalled. and not possible to be recalled.
so as thereby to lose a jot of its original
and binding force. And such, believe,
will be the Judgment of the Supreme
Court of the United States, whenever the
validity and force of that Proclamation
shall be contested there. But whether SO
or not, the Proclamation is backed up by
half million of most potent arguments,
tipped with, steel, which will never be
sheathed, aud ought never to be, till Sla-
very is admittedly extinct, in theory and
in fact. in all rebeldom, and buried be-
meath new.formed Constitutions of Free
dom, re-announcing its resurrection eter-
nally impossible Vociferous applause
If such be the righteous retribution on
parricidal Slavery, the limits of its terrific
rial possession are already dwindled to
those of the Border States. To end i,
there, ends it everywhere in America
And there, powerless and cringing, il
awaits that final exterminating blow from
the patriots of those States,-and shall
they not giveitf That, my friends, is
with us the great question of the hour
The source, the power, the very life Of
the rebellion is Slavery, and the rebellion
will not survive Slavery's death. A bleed.
ing country calls aloud for its destruction;
the vengeful halloo OF justice is on ito
track the Angel Of Liberty brandishes
her flaming sword across its path. His.
tory pants to record its downfall,-and
shall we shrink from letting fall the blow!
Voices-No. No. Shall we, to whom
is lett only the hem of this poisoned gar.
ment, refuse TO exchange it for the full
robes of freedom for which we would be
conscious of paying a price above what
other patriots paid IL the Constitution
worth so little that we will refuse to sac.
ri6ee this blood-stained institution for it
Is the Union 80 small in value that We
will balance it in one hand and Slavery in
the other, hesitating which to CHOOSE Is
the il finite honor of guardianship over
Human Freedom such bauble in our
eyes, that we will prove faithless to the
trust, rather than abandon Slavery p
For one, Isay," in the language of Ken.
tucky's noblest and greatest son, "never,
meoer, NEVER p And from the graves OF
the Revolution, could our fathers speak.
would come to us this hour, the Quick
and stern response, "Never. never, NEv-
Err +" Repeated applause
THE NIeGER PREFERRED TO THE UNION.
But it is not to be denied, that in eve.
ry Border Slave State, there are many
who deliberately prefer Slavery to the
Union, and in their blind devotion to the
former can see no higher law OF patriot
ism consecrating them to the latter. Thew
are traitors, whatever they may SEEM
Others there ara who profess unionism
but long for Slavery with the Union:
yielding to the strange delusion that after
all, in the horrible record of the last three
years, there is yet room on this continen,
tcr both. They are but little better than
the first. Others, again. love the Union,
but, like Lots wife, cannot forbear "a
look back upon the Sodom of Slavery,
though fire is raining upon it, and they
stand like her, CONCEALED, with their steps
towards the Union. but their faces to
wards Slavery, Laughter and applause.
Still others deny unwillinpness to give
up Slavery for the Unions sake. but
whine at loosing their snigeers > w;thou,