The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-04-18
qalisteIIa,rents.
BIN WADE 4 sEcEssIoNIsr,


The editor Of the Newark Advocate,
having been taken to task by Repub-
lican subscriber for having said that Ben
Wade was an early advocate of secession,
replies as follows: l4
It has 80 long been the habit of Re-
publioans to think and speak of South
ern Democrats as the exclusive advocates
Of secession doctrine, that we are not
very much surprised on receiving the
above expression of doubt. AS the best
and most conclusive answer to this "Ke-
publican Subscriber" we will appeal to
the official record Of Congress, and quote
for his perusal single paragraph in a
deliberately prepared and powerful
speech delivered by Mr.. Wade from his
place in the Senate, at period when the
South was only partially committed to
secession. The paragraph is this;
EXTRACT from Wade's speech in the U. s. Senate,
Dec. 4th, 1856.
Southern gentlemen stand
here, and in almost all their speeches,
speak Of the dissolution of the Union, as
an element of every argument, as though
it were peculiar CondesCension on their
part that they permitted the Union to
stand at all. Ifthey do not feel inter-
ested in upholding the Union-ifit real
ly trenches on their rights-if it endan'
gers their institutions to such extent that
they cannot feel secure under tiff their
interests are violently assailed by means
of this Union, am not one Of those who
would ask them to continue in such a
Union. 1t would be doing violence to
the platform of the party to which be-
long We have adopted the old DeClar-
alton Of Independence as the basis of
our political movements, which declares,
that any people, whentheir Government
ceases to protect their rights-when it is
30 subverted from the true purpose of
Government as to oppress them, have q
RIGHT to reCur to fundamental principles,
and if need be, to DESTROY THE Gov
RRNMBNT UNDER WHICH THEY LIVE, and to
erect on it's ruins another more condu-
Give to their welfare. l HoLDTHEY HAVE
THIS RIGHT. l will not blame any
people for exercising it, whenever THEY
think the contingency has come. l GER
tainly shall be the advocate of that same
doctrine whenever l find that the prin-
ciples of this Government have become
90 oppressive to THE SECTION TO
WHICH BELONG, that free people ought
not longer to endure it. You will not
then find NE backward in being the
mFADV0OATE OF DISUNION ;%NSg
but that contingency never having come,
l have never opened my mouth in oppo-
sition to the Union Y \ You can
not torcibly hold men to thiS Union, for the
attempt to do so, it seems to me, aUotELd
S,tbvert the first principles of the Government
under which they RVe,- Congressional
Globe, 34th Congress, Sd session, page 25.
We might quote still further from the
same speech, wherein Senator Wade spe.
officially refers to and endorses the Cele-
brated Virginia and Kentucky Resolu-
tions of 1893 8, as embodying the correct
theory of our State and Federal system.
If our respected Republican Subscri-
Der" can hnd anything in the speeches
or writings of Calhoun or jeff Davis that
embodies more unconditional endorse
ment Of the secession heresy than that Of
Senator Wade, as here produced, we
would be glad to have him do 30, Our
columns are at his service.