Year: 1867

no "iti'ii"'c iailurc 10 uay Ill your hearlng
! lUnbounded applausc.l know that some
think it will. The air is full of the words
Of those who proclaim that there is no pow.
ito prevent it. Men have before this been


weak and foolish, and towards and traitors


have before believed as you talk now but


have reason for the faith that is in me,
which is absolutely sublimein the strength
Of its foundations.


lst. 1t will fail, because it is not possible
to perpetuatc government of force under
the forms Of Democracy. 1t may take
some timcto comprehend this thought but
you will not forget it. That which is now
proposed is force. 1t is proposed by men
who do not live in this State, and whose
agents do not live here and it is sought to
be accomplished by military power, but un-
der the pretence of your sanction--no not to
please yourselves, but them. There is not
an instance i'll all history where a govern
ment Of force has been pcrpctuated under
the form Of free institutions. 1t is an i'm
possibility, and can never succeed. [Ap-
plausc.


ID. But it is sought to be accomplished
BY deceit and fraud, which cannot much
longer escape detection. The masses of the
people of the North love the Constitution
and fought for it and the Union, but the
leaders did not fight for it, and do not love
it, and they now seek to destroy it under
pretcncc that we must give some further
guarantee for our future good behavior than
merely supporting the Constitution. AS
soon us the means by which their deceit
and fraud have been covered up are remov.
cd, the scheme will be crushed to death BY
the people. 1t is double shaped monster,
like the Sentinel at Hcll-gate which can
live nowhere except in a political pandc.
monum.


And what must be the results +? do not
say we will come out of all this with free
institutions preserved, but this scheme can
never snccced. A Adespotism over the whole
country and over all the people, guilty and
innocent alike, may ensue. You fail, but
you may bring ruin upon all. Whenever
you pull down the Temple of Liberty, you
also will be crushed by the fall You can
not level or lower us and elevate yourselves.
We must either all rise or all 90 down to.
gether. Despotsm may come, empires may
rise and fall among us, but whether they do
or not, we shall not have the reign of
radical party. Understand me If saw
man cannot live high up in the air, l do not
mean he cannot go up in balloon and re-
main for time; or if l say man cannot
live under water, | do not say he cannot
go down in diving bell and remain while
but the ltadicaswill as certainly fail to per-
retuatc their power under this scheme, as
that man will fail who attempts to dwell
in the air. or drown who makes his home
under water. Such government would be
unnatural-a political monstrosity and can
not possibly last but you may destroy the
forms as well as the principles of free gov.
crnment, and then you will have amonarchy,
an arlstocracy, an empire, or a dcspotism
as the case may be.


1t may be that We of the United States
have been so crazy in leaving the Constitu-
ton the only Ark of safety that our
heavenly Father has doomed us to perish,
but | am gratifed with hope that it is not
so. If not. there is but one method for our
rescue, and that is by prompt restoration
OF the Constitution. Will it come? Will
we escape an agrarian war with insulting
despotism, and save our institutions for our
children? l hope We SHALL believe We
shall. Though great effort is being made
a designed efort-to destroy us as Rome
was destroyed, I believe the effort will fail.
i -satlaith in the Anglo-Saxon blood.
] dcrlN 'ouragement from Anglo
Saxan his,o.y. Our liberty was not born in
a day. 1t is not the work Of one genera
ton. 1t is the fruit of a hundred struggles,
and its guarantees have been perfecting for
eight hundred years. Many have been the
efforts to destroyit. Often the English Con-
stitution was trampled on. Often traitors
sought to substitute arbitrary will for well
established law, and often have the people
for time been mislcd. But thus far they
have always walked up and called the traitors
and factionists to account. Charles l. tram
pied on the Constitution. lie had Judges
who decided that his will was the law and
all who resisted that will and defended the
Constitution were punished as disloyal.-
And it did seem as if his power was ire
sis,able. No doubt if you weak-kneed Rad
icals OF the South had lived in that day you
would have said 'the Constitution is dead,
and we must consent to what We cannot re-
sist." But John Hampden would not con-
sent. He resisted. He was tried as a
criminal for resisting, and was condemncd.-
But what was the sequel? The people
finally asserted their power? Charles and
his ministers perished. The very Judges
that condemned Hampton wcrc themselves
tried and condemned as criminals, and the
very officers. even the Sheriffs who executed
the order of Charles and his courts, were
sued by the citizsus for damages, and had
to pay nearly million Of dollars for execu- |
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