The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1866-10-12
Statns ut gcbel States
GREAT SPEECH OF GEN. BUTLER,
AT TOLEDO.
Rights VS.. ObligatiOns-Can n State Die !
Difference between the Right to Com
nit a Crime and the Actual Conn
mission of It-Clear and LOgi-
cnl Argument-Our Duty to
the COlored Race &c.

We reproduce from the Cincinnati Ga
zette the clear and logical speech of General
BUrLER, at Toledo, on the lst inst 1t is
worthy of preservation, as one of the clear
est and most argumentative expositions of
the national issue that have yet been pre-
sented to the American people. On being
introduced, and greeted with prolonged
cheers, the General said /:
Mr. CHAIRMAN, FAIR LADIES', AND MgY OF
Ono: We are gathered as sovereigns, to
consult upon the question of what laws we
will have enacted, what rulers we will
choose, aud how those laws shall be execu-
ted. 1t is so common fot us 40 10 do, that
it almost passes without thought. But,
fellow oiiz MS, it is not a light mltter, for
to no country under heaven is it given to
its citizens thus to m set in their sovereign
capacity.
At the risk of being tedious. propose to
speak of the great questions at issue calmly,
dispassionateiy, that yOu my judge for
yourselves, and act according to the con-
victions OF your conscien es and judgment.
Rltald abuse, personal attack of men, may
amuso the unthinking, but can never salts
fly the candid. ..
this day, and trace back the current of
events, and thus endeavor to learn what is
our duty.
RETROSPECT. !"
In 1852, whatever differences there has
been before, both the great parties of the
country, the Democrats and Wings, agreed
in their platforms substantially upon the
question of slavery. They held, under the
decision Of the Supreme Court and the com.
promise measures passed in Congress in
1850, that slavery was protected in the
States, and also that, as a corollary to that
! it must be protected in the Territories I;
because every man, owning slave property
should have the right it was agreed, to
carry that property, under the protection of
the Constitution, into the Territories of the
country.
That agreement OF the two part es on the
subject OF slavery, brought into existence
in 1856 the Republican party. 1t was or
ganized upon the single issue as to wheth-
er slavery was protected in the Territories.
The Republican party, as an organization,
agreed that slavery was protected by the
Constitution in the States, but they said
that the compact of the Constitute o in re.
gard TO slavery was compact against nat
ural right, thing sustaining a national sill,
and therefore it was not bound any further
than strict construction required. Upon
that single issue the party under Fremont,
nearly, or quite, carried the country.
THE PARTY OF RIGHT AND JUSTICE.
There was still another party, but at that
hour so small that it was almost like the
cloud covered by mans hand and no
one could have foreseen the storm and
tempest that ragged over the land. From
that we were told, if the Constitution did
protect slavery either in State or Territory,
it was compact our fathers had no right
to make, and we had no right to sustain,
and that under the higher law, the teach
ings of the Gospel we had no compromise
with sin. LCheers, That party was the de-
spised Abolition party whose sentiments, by
the hat of God, have become the fundamen-
tai law of the land, in conformity with the
eonsciences OF our countrymen. [Cheers.
In 1856, the Republican party suffered in
the minds OF many good men, because it
was understood to be sectional party, its
section, and regarded as hostile to the
Southern section.
the PRETExT FOR SEBELLIoN.
But in 1860, that party, after the disrup-
tion Of the Democratic party, because
one portion OF the party believed that slav-
cry should be protected in the Territories,
and another portion claimed that it was to
be left to the people of the Territories to
settle, enabled the Republican party to
elect Mr.. Lincoln President under all the
forms of the Constitution and law. That
election, which should have been bowed to
by every good citizen, was the sole pretext
for eleven of the slave States to withdraw
fromfhe Union, organize a new government,
abjure their allegiance to the United States
GoyernmeD5 and, with force OF arms, drive
out OF power the United States Government
from their bOrdern q .19g