American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-11-01

was engaged in endeavors to fire our cit
les, to disseminate. pestilential disease, to
poison the fountain from which drinking
water flowed to the babe, the aged, the
sick We knew that we were graphing
with deadly enemy in physical strife,
and that it vas contest in which oRe or
the other must conquer, I'm which we
must vindicate our right to live and gov
ern ourselves, or, with the black man,
submit to be governed by an oligarchy
that knew no law but his own will and
lusts. { Applause,)
The enemy with whom we now contend
is more subtle. His purposes and weap-
ons are concealed his strong fortresses
are in our own midst; his weapons are al
ready piercing our hearts, and his chains
binding our limbs. Tie encmy that we
are graphing with is pride Of race, IN
christian and qnti-repubhcan prejudice
against all races Of men sare orr opa.
| (Applause.) He sits enthroned in our
Northern hearts. He controls our action
every hour of the day in every street of
Philadelphia; and if we cannot conquer
him, we cannot maintain our own free
dom, or transmit the real safeguards Of
personal liberty to onr immediate poster
ity (Applause.) The struggle will be
fearful, if it be true that he that rqeth
his spirit is better than he that taketh a
city. a1'5 i
"But," you ask, "what are the safe
guards of personal liberty? ?" Let me tell
you first what they are not, and, in doing
so, shock your settled convictions. |
know what worshipers of the compronl-
ses of the Constitution We have BEEN
know how, in order to save the Consti-
tuition and the Unicn, we have gone on
from 1920 to 1860. a period of forty years
abandoning every principle we held dear,
abandoning our manhood, abandoning the
safeguards Of our own personal liberty
know how cherished the letter of the
Constitution is, and do not mean to dis
parage its value as frame of govern
ment when say, broadly and with en-
paths, that the safeguards of personal
liberty are not found in laws and consti-
tutions, are not found IN legislative or
constitutional provisions. These in them
selves, as safeguards to personal liberty,
are idle as the summer breeze or the fam
tasy of the fevered brain. Do you ask
me whether mean to say that statesmen
and philosophers have been wrong in
claiming that it is important that consti-
tutions should guarantee liberty, and that
laws should be wise, humane and preserv-
atiye of the rights of individuals No;
| mean to say that these give expression
merely to prevailing sentiment; that they
are the means by which you may occa-
sionally enforce an invaded right, but
tina: they do not guarantee the enjoyment
! of rights. Let me, in the most familiar
way, illustrate the truth of these propo-
sitiVns.
In every State and every county of the
United States, there is law against riot,
"a law enforced by peculiar penalties (;
for it punishes not only .he convicted ri
otter, but also the tax-paying people of a
city or county in which destructive riot
is permitted to occur. Itnot only requires
every citizen to abstain from acts of riot,
but if they see riot threatening, and
fail to rally to the assistance Of the au-
thorities, and prevent or suppress it, and
blocks of stores be burned and millions
Of dollars worth of property destroyed, it
taxes zach and every one to reimburse the
sufferer. One might suppose, therefore,
that in no community would there be any
destruction Of property by riot.
But constitutions are more sacred than
laws, aud l turn to the Constitution of
the United States and those of every
State in the Union. Yeu willremember
that they cherish and gard as precious
above all things, save human life, the
freedom of speech and of the press, and
the right of tha people peaceably to as
semble, to discuss their grievances and
petition for redress. ..Ihis is not peculiar
to any State; it stands out prominent
pre-eminent, in the Constitution of every
State. Again, we find thattho Constitu-
ton of the United States provides speci-
fically that "the citizens of each State
shall be entitled 20 all the privileges and
immunities of citizens in the several
\ States" Let me illustrate the import
ance of this provise, and show how large
personal interest every citizen of the
country has in the republican character
Of each State Government We are all
| now Pennsyluanians We may have been
born in any other State Of the Union or