Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Iowa) 1861-1864, 1864-04-28
Charles City, Iowa, April %, 1864.
SPEECH OF GEORGE THOMPSON

SPEECH OF GEORGE THOMPSON.
On the evening Of the 9th inst, Ho,
George Thompson, of England, tn
man who was driven from the Unite
States years ago by mob violence fo
the expression Of his opinions in OF
position to Slavery, delivered a yer
able speech in the House of Repre-
sentatives at Washington, on the sub
ject of the present Rebellion in thi
country. Members Of the Cabinet an,
a large number Of Senators and Rep
resentatives were among the auditors
We have room for only the followin.
extract from the report of his speech
The banditti of men. .stealers at Rich
mond, calling themselves the Confed
crate Government, tremendous ap
plause, have declared, through tn,
lips OF their Vice President, that thci
social fabric was founded upon idea.
exactly the reverse of those promuIga
ted in the Declaration of Independence
and that they cannot permit them
selves to doubt the ultimate success.
of full recognition of their principle,
throughout the civilized and enlight
ened world. They impiously state
that God has, for his own purposes
made one race to differ from another
in respect to their natural rights ant
hence they have rejected the glorious
truth upon which your independence
was founded-that God has created
all men equal-and have made slav.
cry the chief stone of the corner oil
their new edifice. One of their prin.
cipal organs has told you, and told
you truly, that the present bloody con.
test is one between two distinct and
irreconcilable forms Of civilization
between the Puritan descendants of
the Mayaower immigrants, with theil
one idea Of universal freedom, and the
descendants of those who planted
slavery in Virginia and Maryland, the
Carolinas and Georgia, and who are
determined to die in the last ditch
cs'.s 'a"sh,s~l in defence of thei,
peculiar institatian TI,;s .,..,
is the one "great issue of the time
This is the nature of the great confic,
sublime and terribiO-of which this
continent and your country is at the
present moment the scene. The world
pauses TO behold the grand struggle
between the one idea of freedom, and
the one idea of slavery f! Applause.
Thank God, the hour of compromise is
past. Shouts and cheers The South
so much of it as is still in rebellion
can plead no constitutional guaran,
ties, cheers no pledges. no compacts
She stands with ono foot upon the
Constitution of the United States, and
one upon the neck Of the negro, brand
ishing the bloody weapons of treason
for the destruction Of national life.
The North is free Cheers She
stands by the principle Of '76 she is
animated by the spirit that at once in
famed and guided the fathers of the
Revolution. Cheers Throughout
her constitutional history she has
stood by every clause which the Con.
stitution contains. For the sake Of the
Constitution she has stiled her con.
science, conquered her prejudices, and
sometimes shut up the bowels of her
compassion. Cheers. For the sake
of the Constitution and the Union she
has seen her free citizens immured in
the dungeons Of Charleston, her en-.
bassadors insulted and spurned from
Southern territory her institutions
repudiated and reviled, and her best
men, sent to this city, aud when sit
ting even within the shelter Of these
sacred walls, bludgeoned by the bru.
tai myrmydons of the slave power
and threatened with the revolver and
the bowieknife. Applause.
But thanks and joy forevermore,
That weary night at length is passed;
The slumbcrs of the North are DER,
The giant stands erect at last.
[Grcat applause,l Not only is th'
North awake, but free. Always a gi
ant, she was long bound by constitu
tional cords but nJw she is free t.
put forth her strength. No constitu
tional obligations fettcr her. \,
rendition clause now prevents he
from fulfilling the divine command
The only domestic insurrection tn
President is now called upon to pu
down is that which has hatchcd in tn
bosom of the Constitution, agains
which it now directs its poisoned an,
malignant fangs; and, in this goo
work, the people of the North ar
with him, to sustain and aid him, ur
ill the entire brood of serpcnts, cor
pcrheads and all are banished fror
the soil. Great cheering } Oh (! wha
glorious opportunity is that whic
the North now possesses TO repair tn
errors of the past, to do justice to a
injured and oppressed race. to carr
out, in tho fullness Of its spirit, and {
humanity, exactly to the letter. til
charter Of human rights, written by th
hand Of inspiration, by the hand {
immortal Jefferson. and to lay til
foundations, deep in the principles ,
eternal rectitude aud universal libert,
of Union that shall be perpetual b,
cause it is just, and because it sha
not within its wide. yet ever expan'
n ing limits. afford shelter to tyran
: or permission to hold slave.
a "Once to every man and nation comes Il
g moment to decide. ..."
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for Il
good or evil side
1 Some great cause, Gods new Messiah, offeril
S each the bloom or blight, ga
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and q
;. sheep upon the right,
= !, And the choice goes by forever 'twixt tn
darkness and that night" 81
The prayer of the friends of hums
liberty or progress, and Christian ci