Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-02-14
LIN G OIL N.
MEMORIAL GRAFTON
OF THE
Hon. Geo. Bancroft.
Senator'S, Representatives., Of america:

|
On the great moving power which is from
the beginning, hangs the world of the
senses and the world of Thought and ac-
ton. Eternal wisdom marshals the great
procession of the nations, working in pa
tient continuity through the ages, never
haltihg and never abrupt, encompassing
all events in its oversight, and ever effect
ing its will, though n1ortals may slumber
in apathy or oppose with madness. Kings
are lifted up or thrown down, nations
come and go, republics flourish and wither,
dynasties pass away like a tale that Is told;
but nothing is by chance, thoug h men in
their ignorance of causes may think so. The
deeds of time are governed, as well as
Judged, by the DEGREES Of eternity. The
caprice of feeting existenees bends TO the
iu1moYabie omhipotence which plants its
foot on all the centuries, and has neither
change of purpose nor repOs0. Some
times, like messenger through the thick
darkness of night, it steps alsng myste-
rious ways; but when the hour stri kes for
people, or for. mapkind TO pass into
new form OF being, unseen hands draw
the bolts from the gate of futurity; and
all subduing influence prepares the minds
of men for the coming revolution; those
who plan resistance find themselves in
conflict with the will of Providence,
rather than with human devices; and all
hearts and ali understandings, most Of all
the opinions and influences Of the unwill-
ing, are wonderfully attracted and COM
PEELED to bear forward the change which
becomes more an obedience to the law of
universal nature than submission to the
arbitrament of men,
GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC.
In the fullness of time arepublic rose
up in the wilderness of America. Thou
sands Of years had passed away before
this child of the ages could be born. From
whatever there was of good in the sys-
TENS of former centuries she drew her
nourishment; the wrecks of the past were
her warnings. With the deepest senti-
ment Of faith fixed in her inmost nature
she disenthralled religion from bondage
to temporal power, that her worship might
be worship only in spirit and in truth.
The wisdom which had passed from India
through Greece with what Greece had
added Of her own, the jurisprudence of
Rome, the medieval municipalities, the
Teutonic method of representation, the
political experience of England, the be-
nignant wisdom of the expositors of the
law of nature and of nations in France
and Holland, all shed on her their select
est influence. She washed the gold Of
political wisdom from the sands wherever
it was found she cleft it from the rocks;
she CLEANED it among ruins. Out of all
| the discoveries of sages out of all the ex-
perience of past human life, she compiled
perennial political philosophy, the primor-
dinal principles of national ethics. The
wise men of Europe sought the best gov
ernment in a mixture of monarchy, aris-
tocracy and democracy; and America
went behind these names to extract from
them the vital elements of social forms,
and blend them harmoniously in the free
wealth, which comes nearest to
| the illustration Of the natural equality of
| all men. She entrusted the guardianship
of established rights to law; the move
ments of reform to the spirit of the people,
and drew her force from the happy recon-
ciliation of both.
TERRITORIAL EXTENT OF THE REPUBLIC.
Republics had heretofore been limited
to small cantons, or cities and their de-
tendencies; America, doing that of which
the like had not before been known on the
earth, or believed by kings and statesmen
to be possible, extended her republic across
continent. Under her auspices the vine
| of liberty took deep root and filled the
| land; the hills were covered with its shad-
ow; its boughs were like the goodly ce-
dars, and reached unto both oceans. The
fame of this only daughter of freedom
went out into all the lands of the earth:
from her the human race drew hope.
PROPHECIES ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF
| SLAVERY.
Neither hereditary monarchy nor
hereditary aristocracy planted itself on our
soil. The only hereditary condition that
| fastens itself upon us was servitude. Nature
works in sincerity and is ever true to its law.
The bee hives honey, the viper distils poi
son, the vine stores it juices, and so do the
poppy and the upas. In like man
ner, every thought and every action ripens
its seed, each in its kind. In the individ-
ual man, and still more in a nation, a just
idea gives life, and progress and glory
false conception portends disaster, shame
and death. a hundred and twenty years
ago, West Jersey Quaker wrote: This
trade of importing slaves is dark gloomi-
ness hanging over the land. The conse-
quences will be grevious to posterity." AT
the North the growth of slavery was ar
rested by natural causes; in the region
nearest the tropics it throve rankly, and
worked itself into the organism of the
rising States. Virginia stood between the
two; with soil and climate, and resources
demanding free labor, and yet capable of
the profitable employment of the slave.
| ba ba lopA of rrroat and
they saw the danger of her being whelmed
under the rising flood in time to struggle
against the delusions of avarice and pride.
Ninety-four years ago, the Legislature of
Virginia addressed the British King, say
ing that the trade in slaves was "ef great
inhumanity, was opposed to the "secu-
rity and happiness of their constituents,
"would in time have the most destructive
influence" and engender their very ex-
istence" And the King answered them,
that "upon pain of his highest displeas-
ure, the importation of slaves should not
be in any respect obstructed." "Phari-
saical Britain, wrote Franklin in be-
half of Virginia, "to pride thyself in set
ting free single slave that happened to
land on thy coasts, while thy laws con-
tinue q traffic whereby so many hundreds
Of thousands are dragged into slavery that
is entsiled on their posterity." I" A seri-
ous view of this subject" said Patrick
Henry in 1873, "gives a gloomy prospect
to future times" In the same year,
George Mason wrote to the Legislature Of
Virginia: "The laws of impartial Provi-
dence may avenge our injustice upon our
! posterity." In Virginia and in the Con-
tinental Congress, Jefferson, with the ap-
proval of Edmund Pendleton, branded the
slave trade as piracy; and he fixed in
the Declaration of Independence as
the corner stone of America: GAL
men are created equal, with an inaliena-
BILE right to liberty" On the first organ
ization of temporary governments for the
continental domain, Jefferson, but for the
|, default of New Jersey, would, in 1884
have consecrated every part of that ter.
ritory to freedom. In the formation ot
the national Constitution, Virginia, op-
) posed by part of New England, vainly
struggled to abolish the slave trade al
once and forever; and when the Ordi
nance of 1887 was introduced by Nathan
I Dane without the clause prohibiting sla
l very, it was through the favorable dispO
sition of Virginia and the South that thC
4 clause of Jefferson was restored, and the
whole northwestern territory-all the ter
G ritory that then belonged to the nation
4 was reserved for the labor of freemen.