Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1876-08-18

Ihe Oily JUST power Ol SoAeEAlHeutS y At
rived from the consent Of the governed
4 they uttered doctrine that 10 nation hs.
! ever adopted, that not one kingdom on tn
earth then believed. Yet to our fathers j
was so plain that they would not debat
e. They announced it as truth self
Whence came the immortal truths Of thI
I DecIarationP To me, this was, for years
i the riddle Of our history. have searched
] long and patiently through the books o.
the dOctrinaires to find the germs iron
which the Declaration of Independence
sprang. found hints 10 Locke, in Hobbies
in Rosseau, and Fenelon; but they were
only the hints of dreaIners and philoso
pliers. The great doctrines Of the
| Declaration germiuated IN the heart
of cur fathers, and were developed
under the new influences of this viii
derness world, BY the same subtle
mystery which brings forth the rose from
the germ of the rose-tree. Unconsciopsly
TO themselves, the great truths were grow
ing under the new conditions until, like
! the century-plsnt, they blosgomed into the
matchless beauty Of the Declaration Of In.
dependence, whose fruitage, increased and
increasing, we enjoy to-day.
tt viii mot do, Mr.. Chairman, to speak Of
the gigantic revolution through which we
have lately passed as thing to be adjusted
and settled by change Of administration.
It was cyelieal, epochal eeatury-Wide, and
to be studied in its broad and grand per
spectiYe-a revolution of even wider scope,
80 far as time is concerned, than the Revo-
luton Of 1776. We haze been dealing with
elements and forces which have been at
work on this continent more than two
hundred and fifty years. trust shall
4 s Il -
ments to trace some of the lead
ing phases ofthe great struggle. And in
doing so, beg gentlemen to see that the
subject itself lifts US into region where
the individual sinks out of sight and is ab-
sorbed IN the mighty current Of great
events. 1t is not the occasion to award
praise or pronounce condemnation. In
such q revolution aen are like insects, that
fret and toss in the storm, but are swept
onward BY the restless movements of ele-
ments beyond their control I speak of
this revolution not to praise the men who
aided II, or to eensure the men who resisted
it, but as force to be studied, as a msn-
date to be obeyed.
In the year 1920 there were planted,
upon this continent two ideas irrecOn-
cilably hostile to each other. Ideas are the
great warriors of the world and war that
has no ideas behindit is simply brutality.
The two ideas were landed, one at Plym.
outh Rock from the Mayfower, and the
other from Dutch brig st jamestown,
Virginia. One was the old doctrine of I5u.
ther, that private judgment, in politics as well
IS religion, is the right and duty of every
man; and the other that capital should own
labor, that the negro had no rights of man
hood, and the white man might Justly buy,
own and sell him and bis offspring forever.
Thus freedom and equality on the one hand,
and on the other the slavery Of one race and
the domination Of another, were the two
germs planted on this continent. In our
vast expanse Of wilderness, for a dong time,
there was room for both; and their adYo-
eates began the race across the continent,
each developing the social and political in
stitutions Of their choice. Both had vast
interests in common; and for long time,
neither was conscious Of the fatal antago-
nisms that we're Developing.
For nearly two centuries there was no Sc
fious collision; but when the continent be-
gan to fll up, and the people began 10 jostle
against each other; when the Roundhead
and the Cavalier came near enough to meas
ure opinions, the irreconcilable character Of
the two doctrines began to sppear. Many
conscientious men studied the subject, and
came TO the belief that slavery was crime,
a sin, or as Wesley said, ''the sum Of all vii.
lainies" This belief dWelt in small minor.
tiles for q long time. It lived in the church
es and vestries, but later found its way into
the civil and political organizations Of the
and finally found its way into this
Chamber. A few brave, clear7sighted, far
seeing men announced it here, little more
than q generation ago. A predecessor of /
mine, Joshua r. Giddings, following the
lead Of John Quincy Adams of Msssschu-
5etts, almost alone, held up the banner on
this floor, and, from year 70 year, comrades |
came to his side. Through evil and through |
good report ne pressed the question upon
he conscience of the nation, and bravely |
stood in his place in this House, until his |
white locks, ike the plume of Henry Of
Navarro, showed where the battle for free |
dom ragged most fercely.
And SO the contest continued, the sun |
Dorters Of slavery believing honestly and 1
sincerely that slavery was divine instftu.
ion; that it found its high sanctions in the
living oracles of God and in wise political
that it was justified by thei
1ecessities of their situation; and that
IlavehOlders we're missionaries to the dark
IONS of Africa, to elevate and bless them.
We are so far past the passions of that early
line that we can now study the progress Of /
he struggle as great and inevitable
development, without sharing in the Grim
nation and reefim1nation thar attended it.
f both sides could have seen that it was a
contest beyond their control; if both parties
,ould have realized the truth that unsettled
Questions have no pity for the repose of
lations, /" much less for the fate of political
Dsrties, the bitterness, the sorrow, the tears.
nd the blood might have been avoided.
,ut we walked in the darkness, our paths
ihsedred BY the smoke OF the conflict, each
ollOwing his own convictions through ever
increasing ferceness, until the debate
ulmineted in the last Argument to which
.ings resort" a aads6 a i,
This conflict Of opinion was not merely
ne of sentimental feeling; it involved our
Yhole political system; it gave rise to two
adically different theories of the nature OF
ur government: the North believing and
loldihg that we were q nation, the South
insisting that weiwere onlya confederation
f fsovereign States, and insisting that each 1
tate had the right atits own discretion, to
'reak the Union, and constantly threaten
ng secession where the full rights of slavery
Tere not acknowledged. III
Tins the defense and aggrandizement of
lavery and the hatred of abolitionism, be-
anne not only the central idea Of the DEM
cratic party, but its master passion; a pas
ion intensified and inhamed by twenty-five
ears Of fierce political contest, which had [
lot only driven from its ranks all those / /
rho preferred freedom to slavery, but II
lad absorbed all the extreme pro-slayery |
lenents Of the fallen Whig party. Over
gainst this was arrayed the Republican !
Iarty, asserting the broad doctrines of ma /
ionality and loyalty, insisting that no State ]
sd rlget 70 secede, that secession was
reason, and demanding that the institution | I
{ slavery should be restricted to the limit /
( the States where it already existed. ButI /
ere and there, many bolder and more radj- ,