Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-08-11
Gems From English.

In speech delivered in the national
house of representatives in 1860, William
II. English, the Democratic nominee for
vice president, expressed his views on the
negro. His speech was entitled "The 20
litical Crisis; the Danger aud the Remedy
In the opinion of this representative Demo
crat, the only danger to the country arose
out of the negro-equality doctrine Of the
Republican party, and the remedy was the
defeat of this party. Mr.. Seward had pro
mulgated the theory that there was an ire.
pressible conflict between slavery and free
dom, and this conflict must go on till the
states became all slave or all free. In
this doctrine Mr.. English saw with the eye
of prophet purpose TO elevate the negro
and equalize him with the white race. In
stancing the fact that in Massachusetts, ne.
groes had been allowed to sit on juries, and
that there was negro lawyer in Boston,
this redoubtable believer in the doctrine
that NEGRO has no rights which white
man is bound TO respect" formulated the
following prophetic conundrums: How
long will it be, If these fanatics obtain
power, before negroes are elevated to high
official positions in the government? How
long will il be before the Hon. Pompey
Smash, Fred Douglass or some other kinky.
headed and thick-lipped darkey, presents
himself here, all redolent with the peculiar
odor Of his race, to claim seat as one of
the peoples representatives When we re-
fleet upon the state of public sentiment in
some portions of the United States, such a
contingency may not be so improbable or re-
mote as gentlemen may suppose. What is
to prevent it, if the negro is to be held a
citizen, possessing equal rights with the
white man ?" Mr.. English has lived long
enough to see "Fred Douglass and many
other kinkey.headed members of the col
ored race elevated to high official position.
At the late national Republican convention,
Senator Bruce of Mississippi, one of the
" thick-lipped fraternity" was vice presi-
dent, and for time with matchless grace
occupied the chair, amid the applause OF
the august representatives Of these "fanat-
les" whose advent to power the chsste
Hoosier orator and benign statesman had
viewed with such horror. He has lived
long enough to see many talented members
of this despised race who could give him
several points in debate at the bar, on the
platform, or in congress, and beat him
badly; long enough to see representatives
of the race, "redolent with their peculiar
odor," like Douglass and Bruce, who can
teach him that in which he is apparently TO-
tally deicient--the very rudiments of de-
cency and good manners, and expound to
him the commonest precepts of human
ity, Christian courtesy and charity.
Here is a gem from his record as states
man. 1t seems to be his contribution to the
legislation which was to pacify the country
by converting the freeholders of the north
into slave catchers for the south "When-
ever a fugitive slave shall be rescued from
his master, or from the proper United States
officers, by reason of mob violence or state
legislation in conflict with the constitution
or laws of the United States, or whenever
a slave shall in like manner be rescued from
his master while in transitu through any
non-slaveholding state, the city, county or
township in which such rescue is made shall
be liable to the master in double the value
of the slave, recoverable in the United States
court
That is the kind of man and legislator Mr..
English was twenty years ago. 1t does not
appear that he has changed much since. If
this was not reason enough why the solid
south should vote cheerfully for Mr.. En-
glish, the following elegant extract from a
speech made at an earlier period must have
commended this servile tool of the slave
power to the unquestioning support of the
plantation lords assembled at Cincinnati in
June: "The lowest and most Godforsaken
nigger-stealing Abolitionists are to be found
in Indiana, doing battle against the national
Democracy, side by side with the leaders Of
the black Republican party; and, am sorry
to add, of the KNOWN Nothing party also. II
slave escapes into Indiana, we give hin
promptly up to his master There
was clause in the Missouri compromise re
stricting slavery forever. 1t was generally
conceded that the term forever was not t.
be taken in its literal sense-that it only
meant during the existence of the territorial
government"