The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-08-12
ADDRESS OF HON. D. P. LOWE.
At the Celebration Of the Adoption OF the
Fifteenth Amendment. ut LeayenWOrth,
Aug. 1sf, 1870.


ing of the event that has consummated
the enfranchisement of four millions of
American citizens. 1 rejoice in the new
realization of the truth of the Declare
ton of Independence, and in the revo-
luton of events which has relieved the
great charter of right from the asper-
sion of constituting only a proclama-
ton of glittering generalities. 1t is
most proper to honor this great event.
This nation, so long the partaker i'll a
great wrong, has at last done justice to
itself. 1t is meet that for day we lay
aside the avocations of Industrial life,
that we come up from Office and from
field and join in thankfulness for
great good. l see here before me to-
day, whose hearts unite in this senti-
ment, members of both races mingling
in a common fraternity. / see eXecu-
tive officers and the chief magistrate of
our patriotic State, whose history is so
nearly allied to the struggle through
which we have passed. / see members
of our legislature, whose ratification of
the Fifteenth amendment was a part of
the direct act which gave it force as the
supreme law of the land. l see some
of the brave officers and soldiers ofthat
great host of freemen who went forth
to fight for liberty and the Constitution,
against a rebellion inaugurrted in the
interests of slavery. 1 see some of that
noble band of original abolitionists
who, thirty years ago, amidst obloquy
and reproach, with voice and pen labor
ed to arouse the conscience and heart of
the nation in behalf of the oppressed. l
see here the ministers of our holy relig-
ion bringing the sanction of true faith
to the establishment of civil justice and
equal rights. Let the shouts of glad
noCc arica from aUaPxy haarf lot hnSon
mas be sung by all the people, for liber-
ty has been proclaimed throughout all
the land, unto all the inhabitants there
Of
In the PRONUNCIATION of the Fifteenth
Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States, we realize the direct Gull
mination of the labors of the moral he
roes of the world for the last century.
The history of mankind discloses the
fact that peoples of all nations, and of
all ages, have been but too ready to adopt
and act upon the doctrine of Cain in
his reply to God, when inquired of as to
his murdered brother Abel-"Am I my
brothers keeper" The fraternity of
the human race is doctrine which man
kind have been slow to adopt, while
they have been swift in violence to adj
vance themselves at the cost and to the
injury of each other. 1t was once the
doctrine of nations deemed civilized,
that captives in war were the legitimate
property and slaves of the captors-that
those who had been defeated in battle,
together with their wives and children,
their chattels and lands, became the
lawful possession of the victor.
The bondage of the Israelites in
Egypt, the helotism of Greece, the
serfdom of Europe, the enslavement of
the African race, are illustrations of the
piracies of the nations against humani-
ty, executed in the name of civilization
and sanctioned by corrupt religions.
For centuries the African race was the
spoil and prey of the commercial ma
tons of Europe and America. Spain
and Portugal after having baptized and
murdered by nations the native inhabi-
tants of their conquered territories in
America, plundered the villages and
hamlets of Africa, and through the hor-
rors of the middle passage repeopled
their colonies with slaves. England,
that unnatural compound of brutality
and humanity, carried on the traffic of
blood and glutted her cupidity by
crOwding her colonies with slaves, For
the gains of slavery humanity was des-
ecrated, the ordinances of religion were
defiled, natural law was denied, and the
institutions of God were ostracized
part of the common family of man,
though wronged in its every person,
though robbed of its every right, was
not to be forbidden of God forever. 1t
had been proclaimed in holy writ that
God had made of one blood all nations
| of men to dwell on all the face of the
| earth. The prayers of these millions
at length began to be heard, and philan-
thropy and religion began to put forth
| intelligent and concerted efforts to the
end that justice might be done. The
sentiment of hostility to the system of
personal slavery, never entirely DOR
mant since the Christian era, attained
importance and consistence, and was
stimulated into aggressive activity
when, toward the close of the last CEN
| fury, by the efforts of Clarkson, Sharp,
| Wherefore, Buxton and others, socie-
| ties were formed for the suppression of
the slave trade, followed by direct eff
forts for universal emancipation
throughout the British empire. AL
though Lord Holt had decided, in the
beginning of the eighteenth century,
and Chief Justice Mansfield afterward,
in 1772, that slavery could not exist in
England, it was fostered and maintain
ed in all her colonial possessions, both
in Asia and America. But by the eff
forts of British abolitionists, the moral
sense of England was aroused, societies
were aroused, Parliament was petition
ed, the throne was besieged. Arrayed
| against them at first were all the COM
mercial activities of the empire. The
aristocracy and nobility, the allies
everywhere of despotism, were against
them. The churchmen, unwilling to be
disturbed in their slumbers, concurred
with the ruling sentiment against eman-
| nin INT o6u fae
were everywhere derided as disturbers
of the peace, and denounced in Parlia.
ment as fanatics and hypocrites, they
faltered not in their labors until the
masses of England were aroused, and
demonstrated their determination to
carry the measure against every oppo.
sition. After half century of toll and
agitation, and after frequent and repeat.
ed defeats in parliament, an act for the
abolition of slavery became the law Of
the land, taking effect on the first day o.
August, 1884.
To-day is the thirty-sixth anniversa
ry of that event, and while we cele
brate our own great act of enfranchise
ment, the day is most auspiciously Sc
lected in which we may also join oul
voices of acclaim and gratitude will
the millions who commemorate the
great triumph of another land in behalf
of the same great cause.
But while the discussion of this sub
ject in England had thus reached sue
cessful conclusion, the institution of sla
very, which, as colonies, we had inherit
ed from her, was expanding in our nom
inally free republic, entrenching itsel
in power and place, and controlling tn,
destinies of the nation in its interests
When our fathers were amidst the ST.
J mai of the revolution, and entering int
the thunderings and lightnings of it:
battle-fields, they had announced tn,
great self-evident truth, that all mel
were created free and equal, and endow
ed with the inalienable rights of life
liberty and the pursuit of happiness
But when the storm of successful revo
luton was over; when victory had set
tied upon her banner, and they sa
: down in council to form a more perfec
: government for themselves and thei
posterity, with that strange inconsisten
cy which so often attends imperfect hu
mainly, and from what they regarded
| as . necessary expediency, they recog
nized the institution of slavery in tn,
fundamental law, and gave it such guar
antees and privileges as secured its SAT
nrOfoofinn and ifa S11Ta yraxv1h TIL