The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-02-17
SPEECH OF MONTGOMERY BLAIR.


On the 22d of January. Postmaster GEN
eral Blair delivered speech at Annapolis,
before the Legislature of Maryland. In it,
he briefly referred to the rise and progress of
slavery in this country, and severely criticised
the action of the Democratic party, and the
disloyal dynasty OF, james Buchanan, for
bringing to an atrocious and bloody culmina-
| ton the sum of all villanies'' in the base
and unnatural rebellion for the overthrow of
the Government. Mr.. Blair concludes his
very able and candid speech as follows:
l have nutmade this recapitulation of the
causes originating and the consequences fow-
| ing from the bloody rebellion that shakes our
country, to embitter animosities on either
side. Ny effort, is to expose to view that
rooted evil which must be extracted if we
would relieve the nation from its convulsions
Slavery, as a great element of society, makes
slaves Of all associated with it by the passions
it inhames; the masters by the ambition it
inspires, the masses with which it mingles by
the daily contagion it spreads in thousand
FORMS. 1t is marked in the Declaration ci
Independence as the most virulent poison in
stllled by the King to enfeeble for subjuga-
ton the people on whom he made war, and il
has proved the most potent ingredient that
could be employed for the dissolution of the
fabric of free government which withstood the
Kings attempt. If the virus be infused
which was strong enough amid the enthusi-
asm for newborn freedom to stifle the voice
of the Declaration of Independence denounc-
ing slavery, aud has kept the free Govern.
ment-the hard earned prize of the Reyolu.
tionary WARM tremor ever since, is it now
when it has been poured with the nation.
I blood in the fatrioidal war it forced on tn,
country, again to be admitted into the sys-
tenn?
What patriotic party will sanction such /.
suggestion? The people of the slave States
Twill repudiate slavery when the duress of tn,
Virginia have already renouneed it, and tn,
recent votes of Delaware and our own dea
Maryland manifest their purpose to renounc
it at once. In Kentucky, Tennessee and Ar
kansas, the indications are also favorable Th
Proclamion of the President to deprive tn
enemy of his greatest element of power, thi
sinew ef war exerted tail points, has an
nounced the extinction of slavery as essentia
to the success of the measures he has bee
compelled to adopt to conquer peace for tn
Union. The armies Of the. Republic are o.
the march to accomplish the aims which hay
been submitted without reserve to the decis
s ion of public opinion, What, then, is tn
duty Of all who are sensible that the war
an inevitable evil, from which there is no saf
or honorable deliverance but by supporting
with united strength and counsels the Chic
Magistrate to whose conduct the issue is com
mitted, and in whose avowed designs the ma
ton has voted its confidence Are there an.
who would rescind the votes of the Borde
States and re-establsh slavery therein Ar
there any who would annuf the Proclamation
toreinvigerate the institution SO skilfuli
piled to instigate the war and SO essential t
provide the means for its prosecution
The Democratic party OF. the North was Sc
duced to countenance the measures of tn
Southern oligarchies, preparatory to the wa
against the Union, under the idea that the,
were designed as mere menace, and were real
ly conservative. The event has shown tina
the whole policy of the dominant class in tn
South has been war for absolute dominion il
the slave States--war to extend the despoti
system on which it built, at home and, abroad
Is this the conservatism to which Democrac
any where should lend itself? Bulwer, thougl
+ a Tory, has this iaphorism in one of his lat
papers: "A true conservative policy for
nation is the policy of progress;;' and h
4 gives his conservative friends the admonitio
that /" resistance to progress is destructive t
conservatism The Democracy was. in ii
better day. a progressive party. Would
{ not be an advance Backward to restore th
slave institution to the position it has lost j
being used, during the greater part of tn
century, copertly at first, but now in open re
: 'bellion, stordestrey tho free Government, b
which it had been tolerated, only with th
hope it would have been gradually throw
off under the influence of public sentiment
w hsn ths tnastsrs Of millions Of slaves has