Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1874-08-13

eral Government could 90 notnlng, aS tne
Congresses were to do nothing. Like the
two brothers engaged in the temperance
cause one of whom lectured on the evils
Of intemperance, while the other furnished
a shocking example so Democratic Presi-
pounding the -impotency of the National
Government, while Democratic Congresses
were as persistent inillustrating it.
The pretext for this strange sluggishness
was an arniable one Constitutional inhi-
bitions were pleaded in excuse for all oInis-
sions. They constantly neglected great
national interests, because they feared to
infringe upon the prerogative OF States
they proclaimed themselves the champions
of stltes' rights they arrogated to them
selves the name of the States rights party.
1t was specious pretense, but it was ut
terly iusincere. So long as our archives
remain, SO long that very party will be
known as the one which struck the foulest
blow at the rights of States which could be
contrived.
That is the party which, on the 18th of
September, 1850, wrote the fugitive slave
act in the statute book, BY that act the
United States commanded the Federal
courts to multiply court commissi ]ners
without limit. By that act the United
States offered such commissioners clean
bounty of FIVE dollars each, for certificates
that residents of Massachusetts, or of any
other State. were fugitives from Texas or
some other State,and when such certilc ate
was obtained. pledged all its forces to re,
move such resident TO the State wherein he
was claimed; which made that certificate,
so purchased, of such hucksters, conclusive
evidence Of the right to remove and COM
manded every tribunal within the insulted
State to be still, and all its citizens to aid
the outrage-a statute the very first victim
of which was free man from Pennsylvania,
who, being declared a fugitive by q five
dollar commissioner, was transported to
Virginia by the United States, and finding
no man there base enough to claim him,
he was allowed to get back at his own ex-
pense.
In all those years the national character
had not been raised an inch. On the con-
trary, through them all, it had fallel. con-
stantly lower and lower.
When England and France proposed, in
1852, to join with the I nited States in mu
tual remuneration OF all designs on Cuba,
an American Secretary OF State did not
hesitate to assign as a reson for refusing TO
Join such a convention, d" that il would give
a new and powerful Impetus to attacks
:"on the island of Cuba, by lawless bands
adventures from the United States, with
the avowed design of taking possession of
the island d,'-attacks which, he argued. no
administration would be strong enough TO
resist.
THE ORDER oBEYED.
That command has been fulfilled. There
is no slavery in any of your Territories
That will scarcely be denied even by the
opposition journals. There is just as little
slavery in any of the States. Something
more than you then thought possible has
been accomplis he'd.
OTHER THINGS ACCOMPLISHED.
But there is no need to dwell upon the
national achievements of the last thirteen
years-they were too conspicuous not to
have been seen ; they are too recent to be
forgotten 1t will suffice to present a sched-
ule of the leading events
At home and abroad the Union was pro-
claimed to be dissolved in 1861. The Union
is restored now.
Nine States then claimed to have left
the protection of 9he Constitution forever.
They have all returned to that protection
now " Those that thou gavest me [ have
kept, and none is lost" said the Saviour of
men. The Republican party has preserved
more than the States you committed to its
keeping 1t has found those which were
lost
In 1861 the Confederate States Of
America" so called, we're clamoring for
admission into the family of nations. There
is no longer any such pretense. Each one
of those great but misguided communities
now has honorable recognition as an in
tegral port of the United States.
\ race numbering millions has been
raised from the condition of chattels to the
state of man. Human rights have gained
the sanction of three new chapters added
to the national Constitution. Murder or
ganized in several States bearing the name
of Kuklux wearing the garb and playing
the trade of fends, has been exposed, CON
victed, punished.
Abroad our career has been scarcely less
triumphant. Great Britain has corrected
the mistake she made when she assumed
that the appearance of the Confederate
States was the sure premonition of the de-
parture of the United States. She has
done what Great Britain never die before
she has apologized for mistake Out of
that mistake has sprung q new era in di-
plomacy.
Without the employment of force, but
peaceably, the Republic which was detied
by her own citizens, and despised every
WHERE III 1COl udS 1ell Ofeat DrlLaln vol
UNFAIRLY to submit her conduct to the iudg-
ment Of nations, and in pursuance of their
judgment, she has paid fine Of fifteen
millions for the wrong she did US.
That is not all. Those islands to which
she made claim on our Northwest coast are
relinquished. That claim Great Britain
submitted to the judgment of the Emperor
of North Germany, and submitted herself
to the modification of being told to sur
render it. She was not awarded an equiva>
lent for it. She was simply told she had
claimed great possessions to which she had
no right.
That is not all If there ever was one
principle of English jurisprudence which
England believed to De irreversible and
unaterable, it was the principle that
British-born subject could never change his
allegiance. Once Briton, always a
Briton was law she held to be as fixed as
gra7itation. She fought one war with us
IN defense of it. But after seeing our pitiful
army of eleven thousand men suddenly
swollen by volunteers to nearly g. million,
she wisely concluded it was not worth while
to fight another war in defense of that
principle, and by peaceful negotiation she
has repealed the law she so long and sooh.