The San Francisco call., 1896-10-08
A Galesburg Celebration Which
Has Been Under Way
for a Year.
CHAUNCEY DEPEW's GRAFTON
Soldiers Monument Unveiled by Hon.
Robert 7. Lincoln-Political
Speaking at Night.

y
eighth anniversary of the Lincoln Doug
las joint debate. Preparations for this cell
ebration have been under way for year
and large crowd was present to witness
the exercises.
During the morning beautiful soldiers
monument in Hope Cemetery was un-
yelled. Shortly after 10 o'clock parade
composed of the local G. A. R. passed
through the streets and was reviewed in
the public square by the Mayor, Chaun-
cey NJ. Depew, Senator Palmer and other
distinguished guests. The procession then
marched to Hope Cemetery. where the
monument was unveiled by the Hon. Rob-
ert T. Lincoln. As the monument was un-
yelled it was saluted by a number of
rounds OF cannon. Hon Robert 7. Lin
coin then delivered the address. He said
in part:
The question debated here in 1858 was one
as 10 which it now seems almost incredible
that there could have been opposing parties.
and yet that question caused the longest and
most bitter war of modern times Human
slavery had been protected by the laws OF the
United States i'll fifteen States of the Union.
The Republican party was formed by those
who believed slavery to be heinous wrong
to the enslaved and economically I'M furious to
the community in which il existed. but the
party was formed not TO attack slavery in the
States where 1t was then lawful, but to pre-
vent Its extension into other States. The can
didate of that party was elected President in
1860 and as chief magistrate he was at once
confronted by the attempted secession from
the Union of at first seven but soon eleven
States, with a population OF 5,0O0, QUO whites
and 3,500,00 slaves.
In spite of the most solemn and the most
authoritative assurances to the contrary the
people of the seeding States claimed that
mlnAG10
new administration; they formed separate
Government as q nation; created armies; de-
stroyed all National property within their
limits and defied the constitution and the
laws OF the Union. Suddenly the world saw
the uprising OF great people. Before the
little garrison OF Fort Sumpter had marched
from its ruined walls proclamation was
drawn by the President calling for $4,000
soldiers to suppress the insurrection, but ere
there was time to issue it there came to him to
pledge the earnest support of his great ability
and widespread influence in re- establishing
the authority of the National Government the
great Democratic leader who had been his
lifelong political antagonist. Stephen A.
tentions OF Democracy and Republicanism
were by him and the President put aside, and
for the first time in their lives they clasped
hands as allies in public cause
And now let us dedicate this monument to
the memory of these patriots of Galesburg and
to patriotism. The reflections OF more than
thirty years have turned the once bitterly
warning streams of sentiment into one broad
river, on whose current is borne in safety and
in glory the ship of State, and no one lives
at heart rejoice that the rock OF disunion was
exploded from its path and the canker of
human slavery torn from its framework.
The event of the day took place shortly
after 1 o'clock. A reception committee,
composed of the sophomore class OF Knox
College and number of prominent citi-
Zens, escorted Mr.. Depew, Mr.. Lincoln
Nd pat RI n lor laf
which had been erected in front of the
college. After music by the Knox College
cadet band an address of welcome was de-
livered by Colonel Clarke f. Carr. This
was followed by an address by G. E. Nash,
president of Lombard University. The
anniversary Grafton was then delivered by
Chauncey M. Depew.
In opening his address Mr.. Depew re-
cited the conditions under which Lincoln
and Douglas fought thirty-eight years
ago. The apparent contest, he said, was
the statehood of Kansas, but both the
orators and the people knew that the
tremendous issue was between freedom
ana slavery, the dissolution of the Union
or its perpetulty. He continued:
The compromise of 1920, by declaring all of
the new territory north of parallel 36. so free
and all south slave and admitting Missouri,
which was north, as a slave State, was CRATE
fully accepted. But later the crisis, as always
with the threat OF secession behind it, became
acute and was once more tided over by the
com mpromises of 1850. BY these measures
slavery secured National recognition of the
institution at the capital and the enactment
saved was regarded by the vast majority as
well worth this sacrifice OF honor, morality
and liberty.
The convention of 1852 met to nominate a
President. Webster's famous speech had been
OF 1ncalcuable service to the South In carry
ing its measures through Congress, but it had
destroyed his availability with the North He
was defeated and the greatest statesman of
the century died of disappointment and NOR
tification.
The war with Mexico had added an enor-
nous area OF territory to the National do
main. The North, absorbed in diversified in
dustries ana material development paid little
heed to the future, but the South, recognizing
the growing hostility to Its institutions.
formed the plan of a permanent balance OF
power. This was to be accomplished by adj
mitung no free State unless one which recog-
nized slavery came in at the same time. Then,
with the Senate equally divided between tree
and slave States, slavery would be forever safe
from hostile legislation.
To accomplish this the Missouri compromise
must be repealed. The South grew daily more
threatening and the North more sensitive. To
the man who could bridge this chasm and fool
the North as it had been so often successfully
hoodwinked before and satisfy the alert and
clear-purposed South the Presidency was GER
tam. stephen A. Douglas, statesman of In
finite resources, courage and ambition, under
took the task. He adroitly put the abolition-
lists OF the North and the fre-eaters of the
South in the category of disunionists and then
bid Tor that conservative support which al
ways controls in great crises.
LET the people of all sections go as they list
with their property, whether chattels or slaves,
into the erritories,'' he said, land when the
period OF statehood arrives they can decide by
ballot whether they will recognize or exclude
slavery, or they may determine the questin ION
the Territorial Legislatures
This remedy captivated the public mind,
Dut started a race between the free and slave
State people TO capture Kansas. Bold raiders
from Missouri poured over the border, carry
ing murder and pillage among the free-State
settlers. Civil war with all its horrors ragged
on the plains of Kansas. The slave power.
entrenched in the White House and Congress,
the courts, and repeatedly and recently sus-
tanned in the elections, felt confident that ex-
treme measures for securing Kansas could be
safely pushed With the whole strength of
the administration behind the conspirators,
the Lecompton constitution fastening slavery
on the new State was fraudulently adopted.
Douglas alone, of ihe Democratic leaders,
opposed this and demanded that the constitu-
ton should be submitted to the people of
Kansas Douglas was hailed by the Northern
wing OF the party as its savior, but the Dred
Scott decision demolished his beautiful fabric
OF squatter sovereignty, and less resourceful
or weaker man would have been buried in its
ruins
Such were the political conditions when
Douglas entered the lists for reelection to the
Senate from Illinois. One man blocked the