Bisbee daily review., 1904-07-08

The Whig party had gone to ruin in
 1852 cn account of the impossibility oi
 combining the scattered elements of
 aggression: but they themselves fur rished the weapon which was to de ! feat them. Tn May. 1854. after sew feral months of passionate debate, to
 which the country listened with fever ish interest. Congress passed the bill organizing the Territories of Nebraska
 and Kansas, emitting the restrictions of the Missouri Compromise which ex-
 clnded slavery from them. This
 action at once precipitated the float
 ing anti-slayery sentiment; of the coun- ltry. A mighty cry of resolute in dignation arose from one end of the
 land 10 the other. The hollow truce,
 founded upon the legitimate compro
 nises which had been observed in
 good faith by one side and ruthlessly, violated by the other. was at an end.
 Men began to search their consciences instead of the arguments of political .expediency. A discussion of the right and wrong of slavery became general: the light was let in. fatal to darkness.
 A system which degraded men. dishon. ored women, deprived little childre of the sacred solace of home. was
 doomed from the hour it passed into
 the arena of free debate. And even Ii We shut our eyes to the moral as poets of that heartless system. and confined ourselves to the examination of its economic merits. it was found to be wasteful and insufficient. The
 Americans are at once the most sen timental and the most practical of peo-
 pies and when they see that an in
 stitution is morally revolting. and. he
 sides, does not pay, it's fate is sealed.
 Yet the most wonderful feature Of that extraordinary campaign which
 then began. and which never ceased
 until the land was purged of it's deadly
 sin, was that even in the very ''tem-
 pest and whirlwind of their passion"
 the great leaders of the Republican
 party kept their agitation strictly
 within the limits of the Constitution
 and the law. There was no general
 demand for even an amendment to the organic instrument. The pleaded
 hOA tAAE ANpCdA OL uAAluSA statutes d5 inconsistent with the Constitution. but did not advocate their violation Only
 among the more obscure and ardent members of the party was there any
 demand for the abolition of slavery, but the whole party stood like a rock for the principle that the damnable institution must be content with what it had already got, and must not be al lowed to pollute another inch of free soil. On this impregnable ground they made their stand; and the mass con Vention which assembled here in 1854. while the vibrations of the thunder of guns and the shoutings of the birth day of Liberty yet fingered in the air, gave a nucleus and a name to the new party. destined to a great and benefcent career. Before the month ended, the anti-slavery men of the live more great States adopted the name Republican" and under that banner Congress was carried and two years later national party assembled l at Pittsburg and Nominated Fremont | and Dayton, who failed by few votes Of sweeping the North.
 Who of ous that were living then Will ever forget the ardent enthusiasm | of those days? IL was one of those | periods rare in the life of any notion. | when men forget themselves and in | spite of habit, Of interest. and of pre- judice. follow their consciences where ever they may lead. In the clear, | Keen air that was abroad the best men of the country drew deeper breaths | and rose to a moral height they had | not before attained. The movement was universal. Sumner in the East. Seward in New York, Chase in Ohio, | Bates in Missouri, Blair in Maryland. all sent forth their identical appeal to the higher motive; and in Illinois, where the most popular man in the State boldly and cynically announced, T don't care whether slavery is voted up or voted down. voice, new to the nation, replied. There are some of us who DO care. If slavery in not wrong nothing is wrong'-and Abra- ham came upon the field not to leave it until he was triumphant in death.
 have no right to detain you at this hour in accounting the history of those memorable hays. Two incidents of the long battle will never be forgotten. One was the physical and political
 test for the possession of Kansas, car
 ried on with desperate courage and
 recklessness of consequences by the
 pro-slavery party on the one side, and, on the other, the New England farm CTS whose weapons of aggression
 Bible texts and the words of Jefferson and whose arms of defense were Sharpe's rifles. With words that
 ring even now when we read them, like the clashing of swords, the Slave State men claimed Kansas as their right and the Free State men replied in the words of the prophet before Herod, It is not lawful for you to have her. And when the taking sharp ened to the physical clinch, the pray ing men fought with the same feroc- ity as the men who cursed. In the field of political discussion the most dramatic incident os the fight was the debate between Lincoln and Douglas Not many of you saw that battle of the strong. where each of the gladiat-
 ors had an adversary worthy of his