Year: 1876

democracy. But this concession ca


hardly be made to the political abol


tionists. As an almost universal rule


the leaders of, that sect were ritelld inf


dels, and their conventicles teened wit


the most shocking blasphemy- The,


were by their own avowals, the mos


cruel barbarians of any age. Servile in


surrection and general butchery of tn


southern people was part of their pro


gramme from the beginning The leaders t.


whom they gave their highest admiration


were the men whose feet were the swift


est in running to shed innocent blood
| Seward won their affections in his early


manhood by proposing measures from


which civil war would be sure to come


and in which he promised that negroe
should be melted to &c rise in blackest in


surrection." They applauded Johr
Brown to the echo for a series of tht


basest murders on record They did moi


conceal tsyir hestility to tissfeaeFal anG


state governments, nor deny their enmity


to all laws which protected the libertie:


of white men. The constitution stood in


their way, and they cursed it bitterly


the bible was quoted against them, and
they reviled God Almighty himself. i
know that the mind of man, likeh his body,
is fearfully and wonderfully made; ]
understand all the difficulty of analyzing
human passions, and / admit we should
not judge harshly of motives; but how
these heartless oppressors of their own
race could have anyicare for the freedom
of the negro passes my comprehension.
Unless you can explain it otherwise, the
judgment of history must inevitably
be against the sincerity of their
anti slavery profession. In the pres
ent aspect of the case it
seems fmpBssible to believe, that
love of the negro was not assumed as a
mere excuse for enslaving the white
race, just as their ancestors put on the
pretense of piety to crafty their appe-
tite for the property and blood of better
people than themselves. You must pos
itively reconsider this subject before you
undertake again to present the aboli-
tionists to the world in the respectable
character of fanatics. / think you will
find that The crew of the Mayfower
brought over and planted no germ of an
idea" which has fourished with more
vigQr than their canting hypocrisy.


Here let me say again, that the vices
and wickedness of the Plymouth colo
nists are not to be visited on the heads
of their children, according to the flesh.
Among them, in. every part of the coun-
try, are great statesmen, brave soldiers,
true servants of the church, and Virtu-
Gus, patriotic democrats, who are no
more responsible for the crimes of their
ancestors than peaceable Scotchmal is
for the raids and robberies which in past
generations were committed by his clan
upon the English border. But you
acknowledge that you get your political
ideas from them-you boast that your
party has no doctrines of public law and
no notions of public duty which were
not planted at Plymouth. Therefore, it
is not only proper, but necessary, to
show what those doctrines and ideas
were


A FUNDAMENTAL REPUBLICAN, LAW.


I pass now to d later period. You
know that there we're two radically diff
ferent parties about the nature of our
government; the north believing and
holding that we Fszsia nation, the south
insisting that we were only confedera-
tion of sovereign states. 1t is not true
that any such theoretical conflict ever
existed between the sections. That the
articles of confederation first, and the
constitution afterwards, united the states
together for certain purposes therein
and thus made us nation
among nations, was never denied that l
know of by any party. But this
national character was given to the
general government by sovereign
states who confederated tegeth-
er for that purpose. They bestowed
certain powers on the new political cor
poration then created, and called it the
United States of America, and they ex-
pressly reserved to themselves all the
sovereign rights not granted i'll the char
ter. Democratic statesmen had no theO-
ry about it. They saw their duty writ
ten dow n in the fundamental law, they
swore to perform it, and they kept their
Oaths. They executed the powers Of the
general government in their whole con-
vigor for that, as Mr. Jetfer-
son said, was "the sheet-anchor of our
peace at home and our safety abroad"
and they carefully guarded the rights ot
the states as the only security we could
have for Just administration OF our do
mestic affairs. This was universally
assented to as right and true. No counter
theory was set up. Difference of con-
struction there might be, but all ad-
mitted that when the line of power was
accurately drawn between the federal
and state sovereignty, the
rights on one side were as sacred as
those on the other. But within two or
three years last past the low demagOguss
of your party have got to putting IN
their platforms the assertion that this is
a nation and not confederation. What
do thev mean? What do you mean
when you indorSe and produce it! DO
YOU deny that the states were sovereign
before they united? Do you affirm that
their sovereignty was wholly merged IN
the federal government when they
assented to the constitution Is the
tenth amendment mere delusion? do
YOU mean to assert that the states have
not now, and never had, any rights at all
except what are conceded to them at the
mercy of the nation?" No doubt this
new article was inserted in the creed of
the abolitionists, because they supposed
it would give a sort of plausibillty to
their violent Intervention with the in
ternal affairs of the states. But it is so
false. so shallow, and so destitute OF all
respectable authority that it imposes
upon nobody.


SECESSION A YANKEE PRODUCT.


As part of this conflict of theories,
and resulting from it, you describe the
south as L" insisting that each state had
right, at its own discretion, to break
the union, and constantly threatening
secession, where the full rights of sla
very were not acknowledged" In fact
and in truth secession, like slavery was
first PLANTED in New England There it
grew and fiourished and spread It's branch
es far over the land, long before 1T was
thought of in the south, and long before
q the full rights of slavery" were called
in question by anybody. The anti-dem-
ocrats of that region, in former as we'll as
in latter times, totally misunderstood the
purposes for which this government was
made.


Theyregarded it as a mere commercial
machine, by which they could make
much " gaynefull pilladge," if allowed to
run it their own way When they were
disappointed in this by certain perfectly
lust and constitutional regulations of
their trade, which the common defense
and general welfare made necessary, they
Immediately fell co plotting the dismem-
berment of the union. Before 1907 they
Organized a conspiracy with the British
authorities in Canada for the erection of


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