The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1868-02-29

III,
State may secede from the Union, nor admit
that other doctrine of tho northern Radical no
less revolutionary, that Congress may exclude
or disfranchise ten States from the Union, are
now coming together upon the platform of the
fathers of the Constitution, and in the same fra.
ternal spirit in which it was formed, aud by
which alone it can be maintained.
Sir, there are times when public opinion islike
q placid stream gently flowing within its banks,
when slight obstacles may for time arrest or
change or divert its course. Then, it may be
said. the voice Of the people is the voice of poll.
ticians; the voice of the people is the will of q
party. But there are other times when the
heavens are overcast, the rains have descended,
and the floods have come that its majestic cur.
rent rolls on, emblems of wrath and power, when
resistance maddsns it's fury and Increases its
strength Then it overhows its banks The
barriers of party caucuses and politicians are all
swept away and become mere fiood-wood on the
face of the troubled waters. The voice of the
people then is longer the voice of politicians
then it is that the voice Of the people is the voice
! Of God.
Sir, we have passed through such crisis in
| our day. You well remember when feeble
minority in this body raised its voice against
that overbearng majority which under the die
tation Of southern radicals sought to force
State government, with negro slavery, upon the
pcOpAc VI hnhSdb against tnelT Will. xuaC mon.
strous wrong stirred the hearts of the people to
their very depths, and party lines and party
names were forgotten. Party ties were sundsred
like fax ut the touch of fire. You remember
| that, sir
Again, when these same radicals of the South,
because the people Of the North Indignantly re-
fused to sanction the subsection of Kansas, rose
in arms to destroy the Union and the Constitu-
ton, what became of party then? The people
| rose "a one man. Large masses of the Demo-
| cratic party gave their political support to the
administration of Mr.. Lincoln, forming the
Union Republican party; and to their eternal
honor be it said that tho great mass of the Dem
ocratic party, with some exceptions, gave to his
war measures hearty and unfinching support
| Without that support the war would have been
| a failure.
| In the actual prosecution of the war, in the
camp and on tho field of battle, in the rank and
file, as well as in command, we found no distinc-
ton whatever. Shoulder to shoulder Democrats
and Republicans stood together like brothers on
every battlefield from the beginning to the end
of the rebellion. To defend the Union and the
Constitution against overthrow by southern rad
icalism, in arms against them, they braved every
danger and endured every hardship. Together
they stood in the day of the conflict freely barred
their bosoms in each others defense together
often their lifes blood gushed and mingled, and
| sue by slde they now sleep their last sleep IN
their honored graves. There they will sleep to-
gether till Heaven calls them to their reward.
And now, sir, what do we behold 4 domi.
nant majority in this Senate and in Congress-
under the lead of northern radicalisIn, at the
point OF the bayonet forcing negro suffrage and
negro governments upon ten States of the Union
and six million people against their will What
was the outrage upon Kansas compared to that !:
We see them practically dissolvng the Union by
/ excluding ten States from the Union, thus doing
what the rebellion could never do, and what we
| spent S5,OOO,O00,OOO and five hundred thousand
lives OF our best and bravest to prevent. For
long months we have seen them encroaching
steadily and persstently upon the just rights Of
the Executive; and now, to rivet their chains
upon us aud to crown the whole of their usurpa-
tons, they propose to subiugate the Supreme
Court,Ne overturn justice in her sacred seat in
this tribunal of last resort. They would compel
the court whose Office 1t is to hold an even bal
ahce between the States on the one hand and the
Federal Government on the other, and also be-
| tween the several departments of the Govern
ment, to place false weights in the balances
They would make tho weight of the opinions of
| three judges in favor of the usurpation of Con.
gress more than equal the weight of the opin-
ions OF five judges in favor of the rights of other
departments, the rights of the States, and the
liberties of the people.