The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1876-09-21

VI IuCdS CfOlNcu Out VI GHO HuHuTcu year
of slow and silent growth. When, on
hundred years ago, our fathers announce
l as self-evident truths the declaration tina
all men are created equal, and the onl
7 just power of governments is derive
: from the consent of the governed, the
uttered doctrine that no nation had eve
adopted, that not one kingdom on tn
J earth then believed. Yet to our father
it was so plain, that they would no
debate it. They announced it as trutl
"self-evident."
: Whence came the immortal truths 0
the Declaration? To me, this was, fo
years, the riddle of our history. | hav
searched long and patiently through tn
books of the doctrinaires to find tn
, gems from which the Declaration of Inde
, pendence sprang. [ found hints in Locke
in Hobbies, in Rousseau, and Fenelon
but they were only the hints of dreamer
and philosophers, The great doctrine
OF the Declaration germinated in th
hearts OF our fathers, and were developed
under the new influences Of this wilder
ness world, by the same subtle myster!
which brings forth the rose from tn,
germ of the rose-tree Unconsciously t.
themselves, the great truths We're grow
ing under the new conditions until, lik(
the century pant, they blossomed int
the matchless beautyof the Declaration oi
Independence, whose fruitage, increased
and increasing, we enjoy to-day.
1t will not 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 ad
ministration. 1t was cyclical, epochal
century-wide, and to be studied in its
broad and grand perspective-a revolu
ton of even wider scope, so far as time is
concerned, than the Revolution of 1916
We have been dealing with elements anc
forces which have been AT work on this
continent more than two hundred and
fifty years. [ trust | shall be excused
if take a few moments to trace some OF
the leading phases of the great struggle
And in doing so, | beg gentlemen to sec
that the subject itself lifts us into o
region where the individual sinks out OF
sight and is absorbed in the mighty cur
rent of great events. 1t is not the occa
sion to award praise or pronounce con
demnation. In such a revolution men
are like insects, that fret and toss in the
storm, but are swept onward by the
resistless movement of elements beyond
their control. speak of this revolution
not to praise the men who aided it, or tc
censure the men who resisted it, but as
force to be studied, as mandate to be
obeyed.
In the year 1920 there were planted
upon this continent, two ideas irreconcila
bly, hostile to each other Ideas are the
great warriors of the world; and wa:
that has no ideas behind it is simply bru
tality. The two ideas were landed, one
at Plymouth Rock from the Mayfower
and the other from a Dutch brig at
jamestown, Virginia. One was the old
doctrine of Luther, that private judgment
in politics as well as religion, is the right
and duty of every man; and the other
that capital should own labor, that the
negro had no rights of manhood, and the
white man might justly buy, own, and
sell him and his offspring forever. Thus
freedom and equality Oh 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 expense of wilderness, for long
time, there was room for both; and their
advocates began the race across the con
tinent, each developing the social and
political institutions OF their choice. Both
had vast interests in Common; aud for a
long time, neither was conscious of the
fatal antagonisms that were developing.
For nearly two cen uries there was nc
serious collision; but when the continent
began to fill up, and the people began to
jostle against each other; when the
! Roundhead and the Cavalier came near
enough to measure opinions, the irrecon
cilablG character Of the two doctrines be
gan to appear. Many conscientious men
studied the subject, and came to the be-
lief that slavery was crime, a sin, or
Wesley said, "the sum of all villainies.
This belief dwelt in small minorities for
long time. 1t lived in the churches and
vestries, bat later found its way into the
civil and political organizations of thl
country, and finally found its way into
this Chamber. A few brave, clear.
sighted, far seeing men announced il
here, little more than generation ago
A predecessor of mine, Joshua R. Gid
dings, following the lead of John Quincy
Adams, Of Massachusetts, almost alone
held up the banner on this floor, and from
year to year, comrades came to his side.-
Through evil and through good report he
pressed the question upon the conscience
of the nation, and bravely stood in his
place in this House, until his white locks
like the plume Of Henry of Navarro
showed where the battle for freedom was
raging most fercely.
And so the contest continued; the
supporters of slavery believing honestly
and sincerely that slavery was a divine
institution; that it found its high sane
tions in the living oracles Of God and il
a wise political philosophy; that it was
justified by the necessities of their situa
ton; and that shareholders were mission
aries to the dark sons of Africa, to elevate
and bless them. We are so far past the
passions of that early time that we car
now study the progress of the struggle al
a great and inevitable development, with
out sharing in the elimination and recrim
ination that attended it. If both side!
could have seen that it Was Il contest be
you'd their control; ii both parties cOult
have realized the truth that "unsettlet
questions have no pity for the repose ot
nations" much less for the fate Of politi
cal parties, the bi teruess, the sorrow, tn,
tears, and the blood might have beer
avoided. But We walked in the darkness
our paths obscured by the smoke of tn,
conflict, each following his own convictions
through ever increasing ferceness, unit
the debate eliminated at .'the last argu
ment to which kings resort"
This conflict of opinion was not merel,
one of sentimental feeling; it involved ou
whole political system; it gave rise Il
two radically different theories of the ma
ture of our Government; the Nortl
believing and holding that we were ma
ton, the South insisting that We wer
only confederation of sovereign States
and insisting that each State had tn
right, at its own discretion, to break tn
Union, and constantly threatening seces
sion where the full rights of slavery wcr
not acknowledged.
Thus the defense and aggrandizcmen
of slavery and the hatred of abolitionisn
became not only the central idea Of til
Democratic party, but its master passion
passion intensified and infamed, by twen
ty-fve years of fierce political contest
which had not only driyan from, ;ts ,,nl-