The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1867-07-12
Extract from Hon. Fred. Has
surek's Speech AT Columbus.
rHE OPPOSITION OF PREJUDICE. 81


Extract from Hon. Fred. Has.
surek's Speech AT Columbus.
rHE OPPOSITION OF PREJUDICE. s.
! While endeavoring to extend to
the negro, III justice to him and fol
reasons of public policy and peace
our system of self-protection, it is
natural that We should offend certain
prejudices and sntipathies, the result
of the wrongs the white race has in
fiicted on the black. "We generally
dislike those whom we injure," is al
old saying verified by the Democrat
ic party in this case. But, if any
thing distinguishes our people, it is
the facility with which they overcome
obsolete prejudices. Look back al
Jour short history and you will behold
with astonishment how many preju-
dices and popular errors we have
Iovercome. We have overcome the
mistaken belief in the necessity of 8
State church, a prejudice from which
European nations are not yet eman-
lcipated. We have overcome that
mean relic of barbarism-the preju-
Idice against Jews which disgraced
European civilization for so mauy
centuries. We have overcome that
Iprejudice and tImidity with which,
during the war, We approached the
first step toward emancipation. We
have overcome the prejudice against
negro soldiers, so dextrously famed
and stimulated by the Democratic
party.
Now if you consider how little
time, comparatively, it took TO over
come each OF the prejudices | have
referred to, you, will agree with me
when i say deliberately that the pol
icy of o people like ours cannot per-
manently be guided by prejudice
Prejudices may gain a temporary
hold on the public mind. They may
temporarily sweep everything before
them and "strut and fret their hour
on the stage" but yet cannot engraft
them upon our Government, or make
them the basis for = successful party
Organization. The sober second
thought of our people will always be
sure to sweep them away.
THE GREAT MISTAKE OF THE DEMO
CRATIC PARTY.
And herein, Mr.. Chairman, lies the
cardinal error of our opponents
The instincts Of our people are Dem
ocratic. Democratic ideas have al
ways swayed the country. Our ma
tional existence was conceived in the
spirit OF Democracy; and Democracy
stood watching over its cradle. As
long as the Democratic party under
stood this it was successful. AS
long as it understood how to appeal
10 the Democratic instincts of the
mass, it almost invariably carried
the day, and governed the country
almost without interruption. The
moment It turned its back on its own
fundamental principles, and openly
and unequivocslly discarded the
Declaration OF Independence, thai
great evangci of American Democra-
cv, the doom of the PARTY was seal
ed. AS long as it was possible to
cover up its spostasy, or TO dodge
the real issue, the masses clung with
the Old affection 10 Ine D-,.os. ~,io
name, though the Democratic spirit
had long departed. To tnat linger-
ing delusion. Pierce and Buchanan
owed their election. But when per
version and equiyocation was no Ion
ger possible, when the party which
the people had supposed to be the
party OF equal rights boldly unturled
The banner of slavery and aristocracy;
when it preached political Inequality
and encouraged treason in order to
defeat the very principles to which
it owed its origin and former power.
! its days were numbered and its
might was gone.
oCEM rERpERE vULT DEUS DEMENTAr.
With incomprehensible stupidity
the Democratic party, untaught by
sad experience, persists in its suici-
course. At time, when Democracy
and general enfranchisement seem to
be the unmistakable drift of the age
in America as in Europe, the Dem
ocratic party wages an unrelenting
war on the very principles to which
it owes its birth. Instead of appeal
ing to all that is noble and generous
in human nature-appeals which
almost always prove irresistible-it
appeals to the prejudices of the rab-
bic and to the hatred and passions of
the vulgar and the vile. 1t has de-
serted its fundamental principles. It
has placed itself in direct antagon-
ism to the political history and cher
ished traditions of our people. Itl
has placed itself in antagonism to
the shirt of the age. 1t has placed
itself in antagonism to the spirit OF
Christianity, which teaches that all
men are the children of one Heaven
ly Father, before whose throne of
love and justice no distinctions are
recognized 1t has placed itself in
antagonism to the religious as well
as to the political views and convic-
tons Of great majority of the
American people. How then, in the
name Of common sense, can it ever
expect to succeed? a @
repeat, Mr.. President, the blind
ness of the Democratic party is in
comprehensive. The warning voice
Of the Chicago Times was raised in
vain. The Democratic party per-
sists in course which it must know
to be fatal. 1t persists in opposing
what it knows must come, and partly |
has come already. 1t must know
that impartial suffrage SIS matters
now stand. is only aquestion Of time. !
Sooner or later it will come. The
Democratic party knows that it can
not be prevented. Why, then, does
it vainly try to sem the current
which will sweep it away? Why
does it throw itself under the wheels
OF the car, the course of which can