Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-04-14
SPEECH OF CHIEF JUSTICE CHASE.
Equal Rights to All Men.

Equal Rights to All Men.
Chief Justice Chase presided at a meet
ing held in New York city on Monday
evening, and in the taking. his seat made
a brief speech, from which we extract the
following:
But what is the principle which led to
that it was love to man and love to God
precisely the reverse of the old pagan
principle, which was s~elfshness and hate /;
and as that separated peoples and nations,
so this new principle gathers together peo-
Piles and nations and individuals. As they
planted repugnance and distrust, these
plant concord and mutual trust. And
now these principles of mutual trust, mu-
tlal dependence and mutual help have
Brought together this nation, this great
nation, from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
from the Gulf to the Canadas, and bind it
together by indissoluble ties, this same
principle must guide US still; and we
have now to-day the illustration of it in
the steady progress which the nation is
making, as well as the Church, in recog-
nizing the rights o fman and the duties OF
man to man. (Cheers.) We cannot any
longer look upon the face of any human
being and not leel that he is our brother
man. Renewed applause.) A slave,
represented upon a Roman stage in a play
written by q Roman who was himself a
slave, uttered eighteen hundred years ago,
this sentiment, standing in front of a Ro-
man audience: Il reckon nothing that is
human as alien to myself" Think of
the force of those words in that
dayl Roman citizenship embraced
all that there was considered valuable in
the world, and here was n man outside Of
the pale of Roman citizenship standing up
ard saying, Il reckon nothing human
alien to me" and thunders of applause
greeted that sentiment from Roman lips.
Now, there, it was a mere sentiment; it
was not a principle, as all history attests.
1t was nothing in which men thoroughly
believed-nothing for which any man was
willing to die; but now that principal
comes down from Heaven; it cpmGs from
him who died to redeem mankind and he
who shed his precious blood for all men,
now has breathed upon the heart of this
great nation the sublime thought that it
counts nothing human alien to it, and that
it is willing and ready to do its duty by
the humblest and poorest of mankind.
(Applause.) Now, then, | shall never
forget with what sentiments 1 learned
that one great act of justice was to be per-
formed in the name of the American peo-
pie by him, who, through an assassin's
hand, has been sen to his home, we trust,
in Heaven, and will be perpetually re-
msmbered among men for his kindness of
heart, his concientousness and his goodness.
He resolved, as he told me himself, n
night lying in his bed, meditating upon the
state of the country, that if it should
please God to drive the army of Lee from
Pennsylvania, that he would proclaim
freedom TO the slaves. Lee was driven
from Pennsylvania, and Mr.. Lincoln said
10 me, a wish he had been driven fur
Their; but l have got to do it, and l will
issue the proclamation "-(applause)-and
the proclamation was issued, how cautious
ly and guardedly, you know, at first; but
the ninety or one hundred days arrived,
and the first of January came, and the
proclamation was made the great fact in
American history. Renewed applause.
Every human being throughout the whole
length and breadth of this land received
from the American nation, through its
honored head, the pledge that they should
b. maintained in their freedom; and so
now this proclamation has been conse-
Grated as a part of the American constitu-
ton by the action of this same American
people. But there is more work to be
done. Slaves emancipated are but half
men. They must be educated they must
have the gospel preached to them; and
we have missionaries going abroad
throughout the length and breadth of the
land preaching to them, and everywhere
noble women and noble men are coDse-
Grating their energies to the work of their
instruction. But this is not all that is
necessary. The faith which has been
pledged to them by the nation, that they
shall be maintained in their freedom must
be redeemed, and to-day we have the in
telligence that the United States Congress,
representing the heartfelt sentiments and
the fixed resolves of the whole of the
American loyal people, have declared
that these em~ancipated slaves shall have
equal civil rights. (Applause.) A step
further remains among the steps; for it is
a long work this raising a whole people;
but n Of these steps, as 1 count 1t, is
that they to whom you havegiven freedom
must be permitted to defend it by the
ballot. Loud applause And, speaking
here between the W. centuries, 1 should
be unfaithful to my own convictions if l
refrained from uttering th-t word before
you. But then let US look forward. This
work is all to be done; civil rights are to
be secured, political rights are to be Sc
cured, fraternity is to be established, and
we are to feel that every man who wears
the image of God is entitled to all. the
which God has given to his chill
dren. (App,ause.) Everything is to be
left, then, to the operations Of those natur-
al laws by which men raise themselves in
society, each selecting those whom ne pre-
fers for his associates, and no man dream
ing that any other man has a less right to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
and all the means by which life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness are guaran-
teed and defended, than he has himself.