Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-03-17
RRUTUS IN THE SENATE
.~as CHAMBER.
Mr.. LINCOLN STABBED BY 4 RADICAL.
Extract from MIR. Grafz Brown,
speech ON the Slavery Question,
In the United States Senate,
March o.

speech ON the Slavery Question,
In the United States Senate,
March 8.
-r1 , .a.sk .eIa2--- IaH
Mr.. President, 1t has been endeavorcd by
the foregoing analysis 10 set forth the three
distinctive features which characterize the
movement and the time wherein we are
called to act or to suffer. If the views
which have been advanced be true, If the
/ requirements of faith, aud freedom, and ma
tionality be not exaggerated. then 1t Is
equally true that no time should be lost In
consummating legislation here that shall
directly conform to the end at which we
must arrive If we are not to perish utterly.
Wemay not rightfully put off for accom-
plishment three years hence that which
beckons as the duty of the hour. Direst
dealing with the wrongs of this land must
be had by the nations Congress, regardless
of the traditions of local Jurisdiction and
with absolute shaking off of the foul heath
system of biennial legislatures, amid the
chances of political opposition, In face of
disorganized States, a period equal to that
during which the war has already exist
ed would have to transpire before you
could perfect freedom by any constitutional
amendment. The assent of three-fourths
of the States cannot be sooner had. But
the emergency is pressing; the benefit of
such invigoration is needed now. Nor is
there any other reliance. Senators declare
here daily in conference an unwilhngness
q; to trust this question to the manipulations
of a tiiscordant cabinet or an indecisive exc
cutive-an Administration dragged into
freedom policies, and never there through
outspoken conviction. Why hesitate, then,
to act? You cannot doubt the future. 1t is
unwarranted, moreover, to assume that such
enactment will be frustrated by hostile de-
cisons hereafter. The Supreme Court will
do in the future, rest assured, as ithas done
icSs sse a asls ciea aeVered pubic viii that
shall make Immediate ending of slave sys-
TENS. 1t is only halting policies here that
lean justify it in further eq1iyocation, or
tempt it to brave annihilation by decreeing
that scarce conceivable outrage the re-en-
lslavement of four million human beings,
But if there is one conclusion more worthy
than another to be deduced from review
of the forces that surround us and the needs
that impend over us, il Is that this Is no
time for halting policies. Whatever personates
torpor or stdqndtion or reaction must be put
aside, whether in the shape of Legislation, or
administering, or partyisnl, or thought
And this is not optional, but imperative,
under the penalty of other contortlon and
convulsion hereafter. The'active regenera-
which must hold institutions and reform
qaipeoples, must obtain equality in the methods
of political procedure as In the conduct OF
official affairs. The intimate blending which
exists between party organism and govern
mental control, making the one shadow OF
the other, is such that inasmuch as the
vices of the former soon reappear in the lat
ter,so likewise the changes aud progress
sions demanded In administration will have
Q,.ck nd mo- M fnatinO in the
2 shapings Of political association. Thus II
is that signs of decay and supersedure in
old parties become proof of real advance
and CONQUEST in national development and
exaltati0n. Nowhere and atno time has this
Tibeen more visible than here andnow. In nc
o field Of. human affairs is revolution more
palpable than in the party-isms of the age,
,s andyet inno osphere Is there so great an ef-
g fort to ignore any transformation or recast-
/, inq---to repel the entrance of truth into
politics. Astute leaders of the manage
ment--astute, at least, according TO the
- esteem of their class--go burrowing back
into old cheateries for q name or a disguise
or a platform, and think they have achieved
a success when they have issued only q
platihide, Vain delusion, to believe that
such idle formulas win deceive any; that q
crafty guile which substitutes d nomencla-
ture for d principle will have force In this
day of the upnirning Of old forces; that
the conventionalisms of political thought
win supersede an individuality of judg-
Inent and purpose never before so prevh'
= lent among all ranks as In this struggle.--
On the contrary, the shdms Of the h,tsttng
equally 10Th the shdms Of government must b
discarded s6y those .seho s0oald approach ~
Talk not, then, of your Union party, o.
.x.ts IN