The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1868-01-15
THE srH OF JANUARY.

ineton, giving the toasts, speeches, let'efs'
&C., &c. Among them we find speecn
of our fayorite Illinois congressman, non.
Samuel S. Marshall, in response TO the 1ol'
lowing toast:
mrhe Federal Union: An exclusively civil es-
tablishment founded on freedom ana law.
spesch Of Judge Marshall, Of Illinois.
NJ. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN: l shall
not on this occasion, detain you with any
extended remarks, seeing such brilliant
galaxy of distinguished gentlemen around
me, whose fame is coextenslve with the Fed
eral Union. | feel my utter incapacity to
do Justice to the sentiment which has been
read. The sentiment just read is one which
will elicit a cordial response from the hearts
of every friend of his country throughout
the length and breadth of our land. 1t calls
up our hottest memories, and arouses every
impulse of patriotic enthusiasm.
The importance and value OF the
Federal Union have, perhaps, never been
more happily stated than by that great sol
der and statesman whose achievements we
this day commemorate. In his almost pro-
phetic language we may we'll say this day
that, without the Union our independence
and liberty would never have been achieved;
without the Union they can never be main
tanned. Divided into separate communities,
| we shall see our internal trade burdened
with numberless restraints and exactions !;
communications between different points
and sections INSTRUCTED or cut off; our sons
made soldiers to 1eluge with blood the fields
they now till in peace; the mass of our PEG
pie borne down and impoverished by taxes
| to support armies and navies, and military
/ l. a. 49, Of hai Ia 10
| becoming our law-givers and Judges. The
loss of liberty, Of al good government, OF
peace, plenty, and happiness must inevitably
| follow a dissolution of the Union. In sup.
porting it, therefore, We support all that is
dear to the freemen and philanthropist. "
Applause. But the Union which Jackson
loved and vindica ted was the Union of ouI
fathers under the constitution of our father:
"a Union of free, coequal states, all in per
feet freedom and happiness, revolving around
one common centre each, with full and IN
questioned power to regulate its own domes
tic institutions in every particular, save
where limited or restricted by the provision:
of the federal constitution a union of low,
and affection for a common country, which
like the dews of Heaven, difused its bless
ings equally and alike to all. This is as fal
as possible removed from the spirit and pur
: poses of the radical jacobins who, in th,
sacred name of union, have trampled boil
union and constitution under their unhallow
J ed feet, and are now continuing their nor
rid carnival of hatred and debaucherv ami,
the ruins of a once happy, free, and pros
porous country, while labor, all over tn,
land, is robbed of the fruits of its industry
r and hundred thousand widows and orphan
are raising their supplicating hands in val
to Heaven for bread
Our fathers did not establish, and neve
dreamed of Union in which one sectio,
: should give law to another to be eternsll
J sustained BY standing army which, Will
, robbing the people of their liberties, at tn
: same time by the intolerable burdens of tax
ton brings want and destruction to the who'll
country. Applause.
Radicalism is the destruction of the Ur
, ion and of all constitutional government.
is the essence of sectional domination
guided by hatred and malevolence. 1t has
by its usurpations and misrule, brough
mourning, desolation, and want to ever
portion ofo land. 1t has struck from tn
map of our country that bright and happ
land south of the Potomac-the land of ger
erous Hospitality and of noble deeds; tn
: land Of Washington, of jefferson, Mad
1 AAoh1ott oGtasou, SldN
and a Thousand others of the bright
est luminaries that have adorned on
country; the land of brave men, and tn
brightest and loveliest women-our own kin
f dred, "bone of our bone, and flesh of on
flesh )" aud has transplanted in its stead
miserable duplicate of modern Africa, wit
: all its ignorance, barbarism, improvidenct
and utter incapacity to comprehend th
principles of free government, and fastene
it as a cancer upon the bosom of our cour
try and there it lies this day, eating int
the very vitals of the Republic. This is nc
Union. 1t is disease. 1t is death, unles
we are speedily released from the unaturs
and most dangerous excrescence.
!, Radicalism, with all its selflaudation, ha
given no evidence of the slightest compre
hension of the principles of statemanshir
, Sectional hatred and domination, with
, determination to retain its i'll
gottenp power at every hazard, have bee
its sole principles of action, and ruin an
prostration of every interest in our countr
are the natural and inevitable results.
E The entire series of miscalled reconstruc
non measures are most wretched and pal
pablo folles, even if they were warranted b
the constitution. 1t has been well and truth
l fully said that any man inspired with in
D | tense mahgnity towards our own race i
the south would naturally conceive and in
angurate such measures, no matter how fee
bic or confused his intellect measure
which it required neither learning no
r shrewdness, but only hatred and bigotry t
E form.
Il To humiliate the southern people, confis
cate their property, strip them of politica
, privileges, entail upon them poverty, wan
}, and starvation make their late slaves thei
), rulers, and blight their fair land from on
a | end to the other as with the bosom of d.
struction, is policy which the meanest IL
tellect was competent to devise, provide
e that intellect was inspired by intense malia
! | nifty. Nothing is easier than to drift for
ward on strong current of passion. Ant
when men can CRAFTY the worst feelings of hu
man nature under the mask of public virtue
pleasing themselves with the idea that ba
f tired of their countrymen is compassion 70
an oppressed race, they satisfy their cravin
for power and for reputation at a muc
smaller cost than if they were at every ste
to consult their reason or conscience in
] laborious inquiry after truth and right. Al
/ plause.
1t never seems to have occurred to then
how much easier and cheaper and nobler
would be to govern in kindness, and to foun
E an empire upon the everlasting basis of Jus
tice and affection.
VI To establish government to be sustaine
by the bayonet is to abandon all hopes 9
Z | uuioD t. IA ho voru a,,oroo 81 Jo,cox;,.x,